Recent developments in fluorescence microscopy and the fast growing range and availability of fluorescently labelled antibodies and probes for the labelling and localization of molecules and organelles have made the confocal fluorescence microscope an indispensable tool for subcellular localization studies, in two, three or four dimensions, providing information about the localization, 3D structure and time course of specific processes and events.  Using the most advanced systems it is now possible to go beyond the subcellular range – to the direct visualization of single molecules in live cells.

The Institute of Molecular Biology in Aarhus houses a confocal microscope – the LSM 510 META from Zeiss, Jena, Germany. The system is equipped with an argon-ion laser and two HeNe lasers, offering the following laser lines: 488, 514, 543 and 633 nm. This facility is now being intensively used by many researchers at MBI, especially for the localization of fluorescently labelled proteins (products of the investigated genes). In December 2004, Anna Jurkiewicz was appointed as post-doc to run the microscope facility at MBI, supervised by Erik Østergaard Jensen.