ABSTRACT: Cryogenic electron tomography (Cryo-ET) is a powerful approach to observe subcellular architecture and can achieve near atomic resolution when specific complexes can be aligned and averaged. However, despite the high-resolution obtainable by Cryo-ET, the approach is often unable to identify the location of specific proteins of interest. Here I will discuss two ways that combining light and electron microscopy is making it easier for biologists to capture a more biologically informative picture. The first approach involves the development of single-molecule-based cryogenic super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, which enables the precise locations of proteins of interest to be determined within the cellular context provided by Cryo-ET. The second focuses on integrating an optical microscope into a cryogenic focused ion beam milling system, enhancing sample preparation for Cryo-ET by guiding targeted thinning of regions of interest.

BIO: Peter Dahlberg received his undergraduate degree in Physics at McGill University in 2011 and his Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Chicago in 2016 for his work on developing ultrafast spectroscopy methods for the study of photosynthetic energy transfer. He then joined Stanford as a postdoc to work with W. E. Moerner and Wah Chiu to develop correlative light and electron microscopy methods. In 2021 he was awarded SLAC’s Panofsky Fellowship to continue his work on advanced correlative microscopy. He joined the departments of photon science and structural biology at Stanford as an assistant faculty member in 2025.

This seminar is sponsored by the Department of Applied Physics and the Ginzton Laboratory