Prof. Dr. Rainer HEINTZMANN
We develop techniques to measure multidimensional information in small biological objects such as cells, cellular organelles, molecules or other structures of interest. We seek to unravel how molecules interact in living cells at specific places (e.g. inside organelles) and at well-defined times (e.g. after stimulation with other molecules). To reach this goal, we make use of molecules that can be switched between different fluorescent states by illumination at separate wavelengths. The transitions between the states can be driven into saturation and the arising non-linear dependencies can be used, e.g. by a technique called structured illumination, to reach a theoretically unlimited optical resolution. Specific focus is currently placed on:
Prof. Heintzmann teaches undergraduate courses in physical chemistry and also specialized courses on optics and image processing. Specialized courses currently are:
The methods developed in Prof. Heintzmann's laboratories are applied, in collaboration with biologists, to biomedical problems. Available methods are: