Colloquium 12 february 2026 - The artificial optical microscope. A bridge between label-free and fluorescence microscopy at the nanoscale
Speaker: Alberto Diaspro - Università di Genova
12-02-2026 | 15:00 | Aula Rostagni
Register here: https://indico.dfa.unipd.it/event/1694/
Modern optical microscopes are analytical instruments able to produce images that are rich sources of quantitative information towards an unprecedented insight into the molecular mechanisms that govern and determine the fate of living cells. Their developments are positioned at the interface between biology and physics. Multimodal optical microscopy is a growing attitude boosted by artificial intelligence that makes intelligent the microscope. Definitely, fluorescence plays a key role coupling microscopy and spectroscopy by adding to image formation photochemical parameters, from brightness to lifetime, and non-linear approaches, like those associated with multi-photon excitation able to exploit intrinsic fluorescence and SHG/THG.
In this framework, polarization methods like Mueller matrix microscopy expand those contrast mechanisms available for imaging towards labe-free. Such an “optical and probe” based state of the art is boosted by the growing use of artificial intelligence and the increasing availability of single photon detectors. The ambitious target is to create an artificial optical microscope "to see what we could not perceive before” by transforming labs-free into molecular fluorescence-like content without the need of labelling. An interesting case study is related to understanding the visualization of chromatin organization.
