Incidences of debilitating bowel conditions among young people are rising globally, prompting researchers to seek new approaches to understanding and treating these diseases. The British Society of Gastroenterology reports that more than half a million people in the UK live with inflammatory bowel disease, which comprises conditions such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. While these conditions can emerge at any age, they are typically diagnosed between ages 15 and 40, often disrupting critical periods of personal and professional development.
A specialized microscope facility at the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire offers new research possibilities. The microscope, nicknamed “Curie,” operates at 10 times the resolution of conventional light microscopy and can visualize structures as small as 20nm. The equipment employs stimulated emission depletion microscopy, a technique recognized with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014. The device applies fluorescent labeling to cells and uses two laser beams—one standard and one doughnut-shaped—to isolate fluorescence signals from extremely small regions, enabling exceptionally high-resolution imaging.
The microscope is uniquely equipped with deformable mirrors that correct optical distortions and a temperature-controlled stage, allowing researchers to study living cells and mini-organs under near-physiological conditions. Dr. Karina Pombo-Garcia, group leader at the institute, emphasizes that while treatments exist for inflammatory bowel disease, current approaches may not be optimally targeted due to incomplete understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. PhD student Dimitrios Ioannidis is using the facility to investigate how protective cellular barriers form in internal organs, hypothesizing that specific protein complexes may change throughout development and in disease states.
The microscope announcement coincided with funding confirmation for the institute. The government committed £67m to the Rosalind Franklin Institute over five years beginning in April 2027, and £95m over the same period for the Henry Royce Institute, a materials research facility. Both grants came through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council via UK Research and Innovation core funding. The announcement arrives during budget pressures affecting other UK science facilities, though government officials maintain that overall support for research infrastructure remains substantial.
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