Scholar Profile

Bo Huang

Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of California, San Francisco
UCSF Mission Bay Campus
600 16th St. MC2280
San Francisco, CA 94158
Voice: 415-476-1866
Fax: 415-502-8298
Email: bhuang@picasso.ucsf.edu
Personal Homepage
2010 Searle Scholar

Research Interests

The Inner Lives of Cells

Super-Resolution Optical Microscopy

As one of the most powerful imaging techniques for studying cellular processes, fluorescence microscopy allows noninvasive imaging of live samples with molecular specificity. However, the diffraction of light limits the spatial resolution of conventional fluorescence microscopy to several hundred nanometers, leaving many subcellular structures too small to be observed in detail. To overcome this limit, we have developed the Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) technique. Using photoswitchable fluorescent probes and single molecule imaging to determine their 3D positions, it has improved the spatial resolution of optical microscopy by more than an order of magnitude (~20 nm), approaching the size of a macromolecule. We are further pushing the limit of STORM both in its spatial resolution and in its capability to record fast processes in living systems.

Macromolecular Complex Structure

While cryo-electron microscopy (EM) is emerging as a powerful tool to determine the structure of large macromolecular complexes in vitro, two principle challenges often limit its utility: identifying the location of individual components within the density map and connecting the in vitro isolated structures to their cellular counterparts. We are developing a new approach based on super-resolution optical microscopy to overcome these limitations. We are particularly interested in the nuclear pore complex and the centrosome.

Visualizing Synaptic Transmission

Chemical synapses constitute the basic unit of signal transmission and circuit function in the nervous system. They contain hundreds of protein types in a space less than 0.1 µm³. Their regulation via biochemical modification as well as physical relocation is the key in synaptic plasticity. We use a combination of super-resolution microscopy, single-molecule spectroscopy and ligh/electric stimulation to probe the molecular architecture as well as the real time dynamics in synapses.