WIMM PI
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Data
Name
Nationality
Email
Christian Eggeling
Germany
christian.eggeling@rdm.ox.ac.uk
Present Position
10.2012-present Group Leader MRC Human Immunology Unit (HIU) and Scientific Director
Wolfson Imaging Centre Oxford, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine,
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Previous Positions
1996
PhD theses Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany; Topic: “Analysis of
photochemical kinetic and molecular dynamic through multi-dimensional singlemolecule fluorescence spectroscopy”, realized at the Max-Planck-Institute for
Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen, Germany, group Dr. C. Seidel, director Prof. J.
Troe, graded summa cum laude, awarded Otto-Hahn medal of the Max-Planck
Society.
1996
Researcher in the group of Prof. R. Rigler at the Karolinska-Institute in
Stockholm, Sweden (Fluorescence-Correlation-Spectroscopy).
2000
Scientist at the company Evotec OAI AG Hamburg, Germany: Development of novel
(single-molecule based) fluorescence microscopy/spectroscopy techniques for highthroughput drug screening.
2004
Scientist at the department NanoBiophotonics, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical
Chemistry Göttingen, Germany, department Prof. Hell: Development of novel highresolution fluorescence microscopy/spectroscopy techniques; 6.2011 awarded
Nernst-Haber-Bodenstein-Prize of the German Bunsen Society.
Research Achievements
The determination of details of complex biological processes requires precise, sensitive and
non-invasive detection methods. A lot of experiments apply fluorescence as a read-out
parameter. Here, only parts of the sample are specifically stained with a fluorescent tag
such as organic dyes or fluorescent proteins, and their fluorescence emission detected.
The informational content of the fluorescence light is tremendous, stemming from its precise
temporal and spatial registration along with the plentitude of read-out parameters (intensity,
color, etc.) and its sensitivity on environmental changes. Techniques such as (confocal) farfield microscopy allow a non-invasive observation of molecular distributions and
characteristics of living samples, and of their dynamics in three-dimensional space.
However, due to the diffraction of light the spatial resolution of far-field microscopy reaches
only spatial scales down to about half the wavelength of light, i.e., ~200 nm, which is still
far away from the molecular building blocks such as the size of a protein. Further, the signal
strength, temporal resolution and observation time of common fluorescent labels is limited
by their physical and chemical characteristics. These limitations often impede the precise
disclosure of, for example, disease-relevant processes. My scientific activities so far aimed at
the disclosure of characteristics influencing the registration of fluorescence signal and
consequently the optimization of the sensitivity of fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy
experiments, and their use in biophysical applications, ranging from pioneer developments
in the detection of single molecules, novel insights into the photophysics and –chemistry of
fluorescent labels and the outline of optimization pathways, industrial application of (singlemolecule based) fluorescence microscopy such as its use in high-throughput screening for
drug discovery, and most importantly the development of far-field fluorescence nanoscopy,
i.e. the far-field microscopy with unlimited spatial resolution and its use to reveal novel
insights into (live-cell) membrane biophysics.
Lay Summary of Research
The understanding of cellular processes, for example, due to responses of the immune
system requires the observation of structures down to the molecular level, such as how
individual proteins arrange or interplay. For example, do certain proteins cluster following an
immune response? An important issue is that these investigations have to be non-invasive,
i.e. no response should be induced by the observation. Therefore, optical light microscopy is
often used as a tool to image the arrangement of certain molecules/proteins in the cell, since
light usually does not influence the studied system. Unfortunately, the spatial resolution of
conventional light microscopes is limited, i.e. objects closer together than approximately 200
nm cannot be distinguished, small details of molecular organization appear blurred in an
image, and it can, for example, not accurately be determined whether proteins cluster. In the
recent years, we have developed microscopes that overcome this limitation and allow
observing the living cell with so far unprecedented resolution. Consequently, applying these
tools to biomedical studies such as the investigation of subtle changes during cellular
immunological responses will realize new understandings of disease-related processes and
pave new ways of drug development.
All Publications Over the Past 5 Years
*: corresponding author
Peer reviewed articles
J. Fölling, V. Belov, D. Riedel, A. Schönle, A. Egner, C. Eggeling, M. Bossi, S. W. Hell,
Fluorescence Nanoscopy with Optical Sectioning by Two-Photon Induced Molecular
Switching using Continuous-Wave Lasers. ChemPhysChem 9, 321 – 326 (2008).
C. Ringemann, A. Schönle, A. Giske, C. v. Middendorff, S. W. Hell, C. Eggeling*,
Enhancing Fluorescence Brightness: Effect of Reverse Intersystem Crossing Studied by
Fluorescence Fluctuation Spectroscopy. ChemPhysChem 9, 612 – 624 (2008).
A. C. Stiel, M. Andresen, H. Bock, M. Hilbert, J. Schilde, A. Schönle, C. Eggeling, A. Egner,
S. W. Hell, S. Jakobs, Generation of monomeric reversibly switchable red fluorescent
proteins for far-field fluorescence nanoscopy. Biophys. J. 95, 2989-2997 (2008).
M. Andresen, A. C. Stiel, J. Fölling, D. Wenzel, A. Schönle, A. Egner, C. Eggeling, S. W.
Hell, S. Jakobs, Photoswitchable fluorescent proteins enable monochromatic multilabel
imaging and dual color fluorescence nanoscopy. Nature Biotechnol. 26, 1035-1040
(2008).
M. Bossi, J. Fölling, V. N. Belov, V. P. Boyarskiy, R. Medda, A. Egner, C. Eggeling, A.
Schönle, S. W. Hell Multicolor Far-Field Fluorescence Nanoscopy through Isolated
Detection of Distinct Molecular Species. Nano Letters 8, 2463-2468 (2008).
J. Fölling, M. Bossi, H. Bock, R. Medda, C. A. Wurm, B. Hein, S. Jakobs, C. Eggeling*, S.
W. Hell Fluorescence nanoscopy by ground-state depletion and single-molecule return.
Nature Meth. 5, 943-945 (2008).
I. Testa, A. Schönle, C. von Middendorff, C. Geisler, R. Medda, C. A. Wurm, A. C. Stiel, S.
Jakobs, M. Bossi, C. Eggeling, S. W. Hell, A. Egner Nanoscale separation of molecular
species based on their rotational mobility. Opt. Expr. 16, 21093 – 21104 (2008).
C. Eggeling*, C. Ringemann, R. Medda, G. Schwarzmann, K. Sandhoff, S. Polyakova. V. N.
Belov, B. Hein, C. von Middendorff, A. Schönle, S. W. Hell Direct observation of the
nanoscale dynamics of membrane lipids in a living cell. Nature 457, 1159-1163 (2009).
E. Rittweger, K. Y. Han, S. E. Irvine, C. Eggeling, S. W. Hell Stimulated emission depletion
microscopy reveals crystal colour centres with nanometric resolution. Nature
Photonics 3, 144-147 (2009).
G. Donnert, C. Eggeling*, S. W. Hell Triplet-relaxation microscopy with bunched pulsed
excitation, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 8, 481-485 (2009).
K.Y. Han, K. I. Willig, E. Rittweger, F. Jelezko, C. Eggeling*, S. W. Hell Three-Dimensional
Stimulated Emission Depletion Microscopy of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond
Using Continuous-Wave Light, Nano Lett. 9, 3323 – 3329 (2009).
S.M. Polyakova, V.N. Belov, S.F. Yan, C. Eggeling, C. Ringemann, G. Schwarzmann, A. de
Meijere, S.W. Hell New GM1 Ganglioside Derivatives for Selective Single and Double
Labelling, Eur. JOC 30, 5162 – 5177 (2009).
C. Ringemann, B. Harke, C. von Middendorff, R. Medda, A. Honigmann, R. Wagner, M.
Leutenegger, A. Schönle, S.W. Hell, C. Eggeling* Exploring single-molecule dynamics
with fluorescence nanoscopy, New J. Physics 11, 103054 (2009).
K. Kolmakov, V.N. Belov, J. Bierwagen, C. Ringemann, V. Müller, C. Eggeling, S.W. Hell
Red-Emitting Rhodamine Dyes for Fluorescence Microscopy and Nanoscopy,
Chemistry – A Eur. J. 16, 158 – 166 (2010).
G. Y. Mitronova, V.N. Belov, M.L. Bossi, C.A. Wurm, L. Meyer, R. Medda, G. Moneron, S.
Bretschneider, C. Eggeling*, S. Jakobs, S.W. Hell New Fluorinated Rhodamines for
Optical Microscopy and Nanoscopy, Chem Eur. J. 16, 4477 – 4488 (2010).
T. Brakemann, G. Weber, M. Andresen, G. Groenhof, A.C. Stiel, S. Trowitzsch, C.
Eggeling, H. Grubmüller, S.W. Hell, M.C. Wahl, S. Jakobs Molecular basis of the lightdriven switching of the photochromic fluorescent protein Padron, J. Biol. Chem. 285,
14603 – 14609 (2010).
S. J. Sahl, M. Leutenegger, M. Hilbert, S. W. Hell, C. Eggeling* Fast molecular tracking
maps nanoscale dynamics of plasma membrane lipids, Proc. Natl. Acad. Soc. USA
107, 6829 – 6834 (2010).
K.Y. Han, S.K. Kim, C. Eggeling*, S. W. Hell Metastable Dark States Enable Ground State
Depletion Microscopy of Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond with DiffractionUnlimited Resolution, Nano Lett. 10, 3199 – 3203 (2010).
K. Kolmakov, V.N. Belov, C. A. Wurm, B. Harke, M. Leutenegger, C. Eggeling, S.W. Hell A
Versatile Route to Red-Emitting Carbopyronine Dyes for Optical Microscopy and
Nanoscopy, Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2010, 3593 – 3610 (2010).
A. Honigmann, C. Walter, F. Erdmann, C. Eggeling, R. Wagner Characterization of
Horizontal Lipid Bilayers as a Model System to Study Lipid Phase Separation, Biophys.
J. 98, 2886 – 2894 (2010).
I. Testa, C.A. Wurm, R. Medda, E. Rothermel, C. von Middendorf , J. Fölling, S. Jakobs, A.
Schönle, S.W. Hell, C. Eggeling* Multicolor fluorescence nanoscopy in fixed and living
cells by exciting conventional fluorophores with a single wavelength, Biophys. J. 99,
2686 - 2694 (2010).
J. Bierwagen, I. Testa, J. Fölling, D. Wenzel, S. Jakobs, C. Eggeling, S.W. Hell Far-Field
Autofluorescence Nanoscopy, Nano Lett. 10, 4249 – 4252 (2010).
M. Leutenegger, C. Eggeling, S.W. Hell (2010) Analytical description of STED microscopy
performance, Opt. Expr. 18, 26417 – 26429 (2010).
G. Vicidomini, G. Moneron, K.Y. Han, V. Westphal, H. Ta, M. Reuss, J. Engelhardt, C.
Eggeling, S.W. Hell Sharper low-power STED nanoscopy by time gating, Nature Meth.
8, 571 – 573 (2011).
T. Brakemann, A.C. Stiel, G. Weber, M. Andresen, I. Testa, T. Grotjohann, M. Leutenegger,
U. Plessmann, H. Urlaub, C. Eggeling, M. C. Wahl, S.W. Hell, S. Jakobs A reversibly
photoswitchable GFP-like protein with fluorescence excitation decoupled from
switching, Nature Biotechnol. 29, 942 – 947 (2011).
T. Grotjohann, I. Testa, M. Leutenegger, H. Bock, N. T. Urban, F. Lavoie-Cardinal, K.I.
Willig, C. Eggeling, S. Jakobs, S.W. Hell Diffraction-unlimited all-optical imaging and
writing with a photochromic GFP, Nature 478, 204 – 208 (2011).
V. Mueller, C. Ringemann, A. Honigmann, G. Schwarzmann, R. Medda, M. Leutenegger, S.
Polyakova, V.N. Belov, S.W. Hell, C. Eggeling* STED Nanoscopy Reveals Molecular
Details of Cholesterol- and Cytoskeleton-Modulated Lipid Interactions in Living Cells,
Biophys. J. 101, 1651 – 1660 (2011).
G. Vicidomini, G. Moneron, C. Eggeling, E. Rittweger, S.W. Hell, STED with wavelengths
closer to the emission maximum, Opt. Expr. 20, 5225 – 5236 (2012).
M. Leutenegger, C. Ringemann, T. Lasser, S.W. Hell, C. Eggeling* Fluorescence
correlation spectroscopy with a total internal reflection fluorescence STED microscope
(TIRF-STED-FCS), Opt. Expr. 20, 5243 – 5263 (2012).
E. Szegin, I. Levental, M. Grzybek, G. Schwarzmann, V. Mueller, A. Honigmann, V.N. Belov,
C. Eggeling, Ü. Coskun, K. Simons, P. Schwille Partitioning, diffusion, and ligand binding
of raft lipid analogs in model and cellular plasma membranes, BBA Biomembranes
1818, 1777–1784 (2012).
I. Testa, N. T. Urban, S. Jakobs, C. Eggeling, K. I. Willig, S. W. Hell Nanoscopy of Living
Brain Slices with Low Light Levels, Neuron 75, 992 – 1000 (2012)
M. Bally, G. E. Rydell, R. Zahn, W. Nasir, C. Eggeling, M. E. Breimer, L. Svensson, F. Hook,
G. Larson Norovirus GII.4 Virus-like Particles Recognize Galactosylceramides in
Domains of Planar Supported Lipid Bilayers, Angewandte Chemie Int Edition 51,
12020 –12024 (2012)
K. Y. Han, D. Wildanger, E. Rittweger, J. Meijer, S. Pezzagna, S. W. Hell, C. Eggeling* Dark
state photophysics of diamond nitrogen-vacancy centres, New J Physics 14, 123002
(2012)
T. Grotjohann, I. Testa, M. Reuss, T. Brakemann, C. Eggeling, S. W. Hell, S. Jakobs
rsEGFP2 enables fast RESOLFT nanoscopy of living cells, eLife 1:e00248 (2012)
A. Honigmann, V. Mueller, S. W. Hell, C. Eggeling* STED microscopy detects and quantifies
liquid phase separation in lipid membranes using a new far-red emitting fluorescent
phosphoglycerolipid analogue, Faraday Discussion 161, 77–89 (2013)
G. Lukinavičius, K. Umezawa, N. Olivier, A. Honigmann, G. Yang, T. Plas, V. Mueller, L.
Reymond, I. R. Corrêa Jr, Z.-G. Luo, C. Schultz, E. A. Lemke, P. Heppenstall, C.
Eggeling, S. Manley, K. Johnsson A near-infrared fluorophore for live-cell
superresolution microscopy of cellular proteins, Nature Chemistry 5, 132-139 (2013)
G. Vicidomini, A. Schönle, H. Ta, K. Y. Han, G. Moneron, C. Eggeling, S. W. Hell STED
Nanoscopy with Time-Gated Detection: Theoretical and Experimental Aspects, PLOS
one 8, e54421 (2013)
A. Honigmann, G. van den Bogaart, E. Iraheta, H. J. Risselada, D. Milovanovic, V. Mueller,
S. Müllar, U. Diederichsen, D. Fasshauer, H. Grubmüller, S. W. Hell, C. Eggeling, K.
Kühnel, R. Jahn, Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate clusters act as molecular
beacons for vesicle recruitment, Nature Structural Molecular Biology 20, 679-686
(2013)
A. Chmyrov, J. Keller, T. Grotjohann, M. Ratz, E. d'Este, S. Jakobs, C. Eggeling, S. W. Hell,
Nanoscopy with more than 100,000 ‘doughnuts’, Nat Methods 10, 737–740 (2013)
M. Solanko, A. Honigmann, H. S. Midtiby, F. W. Lund, J. Brewer, V. Dekaris, R. Bittman, C.
Eggeling, D. Wüstner, Membrane orientation and lateral diffusion of BODIPY-cholesterol
as a function of probe structure, Biophys J in press (2013)
M. P. Clausen, S. Galiani, J. Bernardino de la Serna, M. Fritzsche, J. Chojnacki, K.
Gehmlich, B. C. Lagerholm, C. Eggeling* Pathways to optical STED microscopy,
NanoBioImaging 1, 1-12 (2013)
Review Article
C. Eggeling*, Fluoreszenz-Spektroskopie auf Nanoskalen: Die Aufdeckung von zellulären
Membran-Dynamiken mit Hilfe der optischen STED Mikroskopie und Spektroskopie.
Bunsenmagazin 6, 205-213 (2011).
C. Eggeling*, STED-FCS Nanoscopy of Membrane Dynamics. In: Fluorescent Methods to
Study Biological Membranes; Eds.: Y. Mely, G. Duportail; Springer Series on
Fluorescence Vol. 13; Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 291 – 309 (2012)
V. Mueller, A. Honigmann, C. Ringemann, R. Medda, G. Schwarzmann, C. Eggeling*, FCS
in STED Microscopy: Studying the Nanoscale of Lipid Membrane Dynamics. In:
Methods in Enzymology, Vol. 519; Ed: S. Y. Tetin; Burlington: Academic Press, 1 – 38
(2013)
C. Eggeling, K. I. Willig, F. J. Barrantes STED microscopy of living cells - New frontiers in
membrane and neurobiology, J Neurochem 126, 203–212 (2013)
Proceedings and Other Publications
A. Honigmann, C. Eggeling*, M. Schulze, A. Lepert, Super-resolution STED microscopy
advances with yellow CW OPSL. LaserFocusWorld 48, 75-79 (2012).
V. Mueller, C. Eggeling*, H. Karlsson, D. von Gegerfelt, CW DPSS Lasers Make STED
Microscopy More Practical, Biophotonics 19, 30-32 (2012).
C. Eggeling*, A. Honigmann, M. Schulze, gSTED Microscopy with an OPSL: Cutting Edge
Super-Resolution. Optik & Photonik 7, 44–46 (2012)
Ten Key Publications Throughout your Career
C. Eggeling, J. Widengren, R. Rigler, C. A. M. Seidel, Photobleaching of fluorescent dyes
under conditions used for single-molecule detection: Evidence of two-step photolysis.
Anal. Chem. 70, 2651-2659 (1998).
C. Eggeling, L. Brand, D. Ullmann, S. Jäger, Highly sensitive fluorescence detection
technology currently available for HTS. Drug Discovery Today 8, 632-641 (2003).
M. Hofmann, C. Eggeling, S. Jakobs, S. W. Hell, Breaking the diffraction barrier in
fluorescence microscopy at low light intensities using reversibly photoswitchable
proteins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 17565-17569 (2006).
G. Donnert, J. Keller, R. Medda, M. A. Andrei, S. O. Rizzoli, R. Lührmann, R. Jahn, C.
Eggeling, S. W. Hell, Macromolecular-scale resolution in biological fluorescence
microscopy. Proc. Natl. Acad. Soc. USA 103, 11440-11445 (2006).
J. J. Sieber, K. I. Willig, C. Kutzner, C. Gerding-Reimers, B. Harke, G. Donnert, B.
Rammner, C. Eggeling, S. W. Hell, H. Grubmüller, T. Lang, Anatomy and dynamics of a
supramolecular membrane protein cluster. Science 317, 1072-1076 (2007).
J. Fölling, M. Bossi, H. Bock, R. Medda, C. A. Wurm, B. Hein, S. Jakobs, C. Eggeling*, S. W.
Hell Fluorescence nanoscopy by ground-state depletion and single-molecule return.
Nature Meth. 5, 943-945 (2008).
C. Eggeling*, C. Ringemann, R. Medda, G. Schwarzmann, K. Sandhoff, S. Polyakova. V. N.
Belov, B. Hein, C. von Middendorff, A. Schönle, S. W. Hell Direct observation of the
nanoscale dynamics of membrane lipids in a living cell. Nature 457, 1159-1163 (2009).
S. J. Sahl, M. Leutenegger, M. Hilbert, S. W. Hell, C. Eggeling* Fast molecular tracking
maps nanoscale dynamics of plasma membrane lipids, Proc. Natl. Acad. Soc. USA
107, 6829 – 6834 (2010).
G. Vicidomini, G. Moneron, K.Y. Han, V. Westphal, H. Ta, M. Reuss, J. Engelhardt, C.
Eggeling, S.W. Hell Sharper low-power STED nanoscopy by time gating, Nature Meth.
8, 571 – 573 (2011).
T. Grotjohann, I. Testa, M. Leutenegger, H. Bock, N. T. Urban, F. Lavoie-Cardinal, K.I.
Willig, C. Eggeling, S. Jakobs, S.W. Hell Diffraction-unlimited all-optical imaging and
writing with a photochromic GFP, Nature 478, 204 – 208 (2011).
Markers of Esteem
1999
Otto-Hahn medal of the Max-Planck society rewarding scientific achievements during the
PhD work
2006
Cozarelli award of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA for one of
the best publications of the year 2006
2011
Nernst-Haber-Bodenstein Prize of the Bunsen Society (German Physical Chemistry
Society)
Current Grant Support
Sub-project A6 (Pattern formation in membranes with quenched disorder) within the
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 937 of the University Göttingen (since 9.2010).
Sub-project B11 (Nanoscale observations of membrane dynamics) with the Collaborative
Research Center (SFB) 755 of the University Göttingen (since 2011).
Next Generation Optical Microscopy – Nanoscopy Oxford, MRC/EPSRC/BBSRC (since
3.2013)
Dynamics of Peroxisomal Protein Transport, BBSRC (since 4.2013)
Marie-Curie Career Integration Grant (contribution to group member Jorge Bernardino de la
Serna) (since 10.2013)
EMBO Long-Term Fellowship (contribution to group member Erdinc Sezgin) (from 1.2014)