Super-Resolution Imaging of Transcription in Living Cells
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Ibrahim I. Cissé, PhD.
Senior Group Leader & Director
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Ibrahim Cissé is director of Max Planck Institute (MPI) in Freiburg. Before his role at MPI, he served as a Professor of Physics at Caltech in California and a Professor of Physics and Biology at MIT in Boston. He has received multiple national and international awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, the Young Fluorescence Investigator Award from the Biophysical Society, the Pew Biomedical Scholars Award, and the National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award. He is an elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
Summary
We will discuss the latest efforts in our laboratory to develop highly sensitive methods of microscopy, to go directly inside living cells and uncover the behavior of single biomolecules as they effect their function in transcription. Transcription is the first step in gene expression regulation, during which genetic information on DNA is decoded into RNA transcripts. Methodologically, the so-called live cell single molecule and super-resolution techniques – that break the optical diffraction limit– are revealing with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions, novel emergent phenomena inside the living cells. We will discuss our recent discoveries on highly dynamic biomolecular clustering, and phase transitions in vivo. These discoveries are challenging the ‘textbook view’ on how our genome (DNA) is decoded in living cells.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the difficulty behind detection of weak and transient biological interactions.
- Understanding the function RNA Polymerase II clusters & Condensates that my lab has discovered.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, March 31, 2026