Project Summary

Gene regulation through the organization of chromatin is a canonical example of the biological paradigm that function correlates to structure. The different states of chromatin span length scales ranging from tens of nanometers to tens of microns. The ability to image across many length scales is therefore essential for understanding how the organization and regulation of genetic material is mediated by chromatin. The goal of this proposal is to develop dual-channel STED microscopy to visualize chromatin organization with sub-40 nm resolution in order to test the hypothesis that the nanoscale structure of chromatin is specific to its functional state.