Super-resolution microscope 'Curie' targets root causes of inflammatory bowel disease

Scientists in Oxfordshire have begun using a unique, ultra-high-resolution microscope to peer inside living human cells, hoping to uncover the root cause of inflammatory bowel disease.

The machine, nicknamed "Curie" by researchers at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, is the only one of its kind in the UK. By allowing scientists to watch biological processes happen live and in three dimensions, team leaders hope it will reveal why things go wrong in the human gut.

More than half a million people in the UK live with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis being the two primary forms, according to the British Society of Gastroenterology. While these incurable conditions can develop at any age, they are most frequently diagnosed in people between 15 and 40, disrupting lives during key years for education and careers. Current treatments can manage the symptoms, but they are often blunt instruments because scientists do not yet fully understand how the disease works.

Curie could change that. Located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, the microscope operates at 10 times the resolution of standard light microscopes, capturing details as small as 20 nanometres.

To achieve this, it uses a technique called Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy, a technology that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014. The microscope labels molecules inside cells with fluorescent tags, then fires two lasers at them. The first laser makes the tags glow, while the second—shaped like a doughnut—switches off the glow around the outer edge. This leaves only a tiny, highly focused point of light in the centre, allowing the microscope to distinguish structures that sit incredibly close together.

Unlike conventional microscopes that require flat, dead samples on slides, Curie can look deep inside thick, living tissue and patient-derived "mini-organs." It uses deformable mirrors to correct the optical distortions caused by looking through thick tissue, and a temperature-controlled stage keeps cells alive at normal body temperature.

Dr Karina Pombo-Garcia, who leads the lab, said the microscope will be a "huge game changer" for understanding cellular mechanics. "It allows us to look at very, very tiny processes inside cells with a very high resolution, and we can look at these processes live," she said.

One of the first researchers using the new machine is PhD student Dimitrios Ioannidis. He is studying how the cells lining our intestines build protective barriers, comparing healthy tissue development from the foetal stage to adulthood with tissue from IBD patients.

"If the structure changes, so does the function," Ioannidis said. By finding exactly where the barrier breaks down, he hopes to pinpoint "the root cause of some of the diseases that are affecting individuals."

The microscope's unveiling coincided with a government announcement of £67 million in funding for the Rosalind Franklin Institute over five years, starting in April 2027.

But the investment comes during a tense period for the Harwell campus. The Science and Technology Facilities Council, which funds several nearby national facilities, must find £162 million in savings by 2030. This has left major sites like the Diamond Light Source synchrotron and the Central Laser Facility facing a projected 15 per cent funding drop.

Science Minister Chris McDonald defended the budget, stating that while facilities must live within their means, high-level science funding remains strong. "It is right that STFC prioritise their own budget," he said.