Joerg Bewersdorf

About

Joerg Bewersdorf is a Professor of Cell Biology and of Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. He received his Master's degree (Dipl. Phys., 1998) and his doctoral degree in physics (Dr. rer. nat., 2002) training with Dr. Stefan W. Hell at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany. After four years at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, he relocated his research group to Yale University in 2009. An optical physicist and biophysicist by training, Dr. Bewersdorf has contributed extensively to the development of super-resolution light microscopy techniques and their application to cell biological questions. His research focuses on visualizing 3D structure and dynamics at the molecular scale, addressing the critical need for high-resolution imaging of sub-cellular features such as organelle morphology and chromatin organization. His laboratory develops and improves fluorescence microscopy methods, including Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy, Single-molecule Localization Microscopy, and pan-Expansion Microscopy, aiming to enhance spatial and temporal resolution, speed, robustness, and multicolor labeling capabilities. These advanced imaging techniques are applied in collaboration with various research groups at Yale and beyond to investigate biological questions related to the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi complex, cell nucleus, and cytokinesis.

Research topics

• Physics
• Optics
• Materials science
• Biology
• Biophysics
• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Biochemistry
• Computer Science

Selected publications

• Light microscopy of proteins in their ultrastructural context

  Nature Communications · 2020 · 207 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Resolving the distribution of specific proteins at the nanoscale in the ultrastructural context of the cell is a major challenge in fluorescence microscopy. We report the discovery of a new principle for an optical contrast equivalent to electron microscopy (EM) which reveals the ultrastructural context of the cells with a conventional confocal microscope. By decrowding the intracellular space through 13 to 21-fold physical expansion while simultaneously retaining the proteins, bulk (pan) labeli…

  DOI

• Nanoscale subcellular architecture revealed by multicolor three-dimensional salvaged fluorescence imaging

  Nature Methods · 2020 · 141 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Fluorogenic DNA-PAINT for faster, low-background super-resolution imaging

  Nature Methods · 2022 · 127 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Three-dimensional adaptive optical nanoscopy for thick specimen imaging at sub-50-nm resolution

  Nature Methods · 2021 · 69 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Extremely Bright, Near-IR Emitting Spontaneously Blinking Fluorophores Enable Ratiometric Multicolor Nanoscopy in Live Cells

  ACS Central Science · 2021 · 62 citations

  enables simultaneous, live-cell, two-color SMLM of two intracellular organelles (ER + mitochondria) with only a single laser and no chemical additives.

  DOI

Recent grants

• New Mechanisms of Heterotaxy and Congenital Heart Disease: Nucleoporins at Cilia

  NIH · $5.5M · 2015–2023

• Development of a Versatile Multiplexing Nanoscopy Platform for Cell Biology

  NIH · $1.8M · 2023–2027

• An Integrated Imaging System for High-throughput Nanoscopy of the 4D Nucleome

  NIH · $990k · 2015–2020

Frequent coauthors

• David Baddeley

  University of Auckland

  41 shared

• Yongdeng Zhang

  Westlake University

  31 shared

• Edward S. Allgeyer

  Wellcome/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute

  31 shared

• Travis J. Gould

  Pfizer (United States)

  28 shared

• Mark D. Lessard

  Yale University

  24 shared

• Thomas D. Pollard

  Yale University

  24 shared

• Martin J. Booth

  24 shared

• Kevin Hu

  Yale University

  23 shared

Awards & honors

• Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Cell Biology (2022)

Similar researchers at Yale University

• Steven Girvinh-103
• Helen Cainesh-76
• Charles Ahnh-65