Professor Andrew Shevchuk, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London

Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy: From Basic Principles to Advanced Applications

Progressive advances in scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM)enabled us to convert an ordinary scanning probe microscope (SPM) in to the versatile multifunctional robot for wide range of applications at nanoscale. As a live cell imaging tool, SICM is capable to deliver the highest topographical resolution amongst other microscopy techniques available today. At the same time, it can visualize highly convoluted surfaces, complexity of which makes them inaccessible to other SPMs. We successfully combined SICM with a whole battery of other powerful methods such as patch-clamp, scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET),  force mapping, localized drug delivery, nano-deposition and nano-sensing. The combination of SICM with fluorescence laser confocal microscopy enabled correlative live imaging that facilitate the study of membrane transport in living cells.