News

On March 22 the Nizhniy-Novgorod state medical academy (NGMA) threw open its doors for the participants of a practical school-seminar “Nikon N-STORM: Super-resolution Microscopy”. This N-STORM installation is the first of its kind in Russia.  16 N-STORM systems have already been established at the leading medical institutions of Europe, and now this year the possibility to conduct studies on this innovative equipment is possible for Russian scientists as well.  

During the scientific program of the school-seminar the following themes were examined:

• “Super resolution methods for optical microscopy: a review”, L.P. Nezlin, Institute of Biology Development (Moscow);
• “Nikon Super Resolution Research Systems”, Peter Drent, General Manager, Nikon Instruments Europe (NL);
• “Genetic-coded fluorescent markers”, K.A. Lukyanov, Institute of Bio-organic Chemistry RAN [Russian Academy of Science] (Moscow)

During the practical part of the seminar the participants could be introduced to the Nikon N-STORM Super Resolution Research Systems, and also receive instruction on how to obtain images and the basic functions of the software.  

The innovative technical characteristics of the N-STORM system provides dramatically enhanced resolution that is 10 times or better than that of conventional optical microscopes and will be capable of multi-spectral two-dimensional and three-dimensional nanoscopy, with lateral resolution to approximately 20nm and axial resolution to approximately 50nm, extending the role of the optical microscope to near molecular level resolution.

As noted, the innovative Nikon N-STORM is the first of its kind installed in Russia. It was established in the research laboratory of fluorescent bio-imaging and the grand opening of the installation took place in the past month. This research laboratory is funded by generous grants from the Russian government. This seminar with the practical demonstration of N-STORM was big news within the Russian scientific community and it gathered participants from the leading research institutions of Russia:

Biological Department of MGU (Moscow); Pushchin Scientific Center RAN [Russian Academy of Science] (Pushchino); Kazan Scientific Center RAN (Kazan); National Center of Reconstructive and Restorative Surgery of the Siberian department of RAN  (Irkutsk); Institute of Spectroscopy RAN (Troitsk), Scientific Research Institute of Nano-Biotech (St. Petersburg); Far-East State University (Vladivostok); Institute of Biology Development RAN (Moscow); Institute of bio-organic chemistry (Moscow); Institute of applied physics RAN (Nizhniy Novgorod); Institute of Marine Biology of the Far-Eastern department of RAN (Vladivostok), Scientific Research Institute of Applied and Fundamental Medicine ( Nizhniy Novgorod); Nizhniy-Novgorod National Research University ( Nizhniy Novgorod).

This school-seminar made it possible for Russian scientists to attain new practical experience with N-STORM systems and to share knowledge and discuss vital questions with their associates in the scientific community.   The possibilities of further productive collaboration of the Nizhniy-Novgorod State Medical Academy and Nikon were also discussed.  We hope that the successful installation and seminar of this equipment will be a strong  basis for further fruitful collaboration and further innovation in Russian healthcare.