Promote the spirit of scientists | Li Dong: See the deeper part of the cells

Li Dong debugged the equipment in the laboratory. People's Daily reporter Shi Fang

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Li Dong, born in 1983, is an old man in Yunnan. Researchers and research team leaders of the Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the national key laboratory of biomolecules, mainly engaged in the research and development of super -distinguished micro -imaging technology and their biological application research. The system has mastered the key technologies of super -resolution microscope, and proposed a new imaging method. The key indicators have reached the international leading level; the research results "The development and application of the transjuction of the transition structure light of the transition structure" was selected as the top ten progress in China in 2018; it has won a number of honors such as the Youth Scientist Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Another late night, in a simple office of the Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Li Dong sometimes tapped the keyboard quickly, and sometimes stared at the three standard display screen -sized computer screens. The whiteboard behind it is painted with spectral maps, light paths, and fusion gene structures.

"Life science is the intersection of various disciplines, and it is a field of research that contains unlimited possible"

Li Dong was born in an old Yi family in Yunnan. The mother of the nurse wanted him to study medicine. In 2002, when filling in the college entrance examination volunteer, Li Dong was very interested in the major of optical engineering in Zhejiang University, and was filled in and was successfully admitted. In the first lesson of the start of school, when I saw a video shot by the teacher with an independent high -speed camera, Li Dong was deeply shocked.

"I'm coming to the place, and I must do a career like my predecessors!" Li Dong secretly resolved. For 4 years, in addition to studying in the self -study room, he was soaked in the laboratory. He was not satisfied with the knowledge points, but worked hard to sort out the knowledge system of the discipline. Later, when Li Dong studied his doctorate, he began to contact the cross discipline of "biological photonology".

Compared with electron microscope, optical microscope can continuously track any protein molecules under live body conditions, which is of great significance to biological research. However, for a long time, optical micro -imaging technology has been subject to the limit of Abbe, and the resolution cannot exceed 200 nanometers.

In order to break through the limits of Abbe, in 2011, during the post -doctoral period, Li Dong chose a more unpopular research path at that time -structural light lighting.

The two sine functions are multiplied, and the frequency of the wave function will increase. Li Dong found inspiration from this mathematical formula: gives two different colors of light sources, so that their waves and peaks are superimposed, so as to break through the original limit and greatly improve the resolution.

This idea is extremely harsh on the color difference correction of the optical system. For example, how to realize the "peak pairing peak, the valley pairs" that stimulate the light wave function? The cycle of the wave function is nearly 150 nanometers, and the imaging field of optical microscope is about 50,000 nanometers, which means that in the imaging field of half -rooted hair, the two cycles of wave functions appear more than 3,000 cycles. How to test if the two wave functions are not aligned?

For nearly two years, Li Dong read a lot of literature, simulated calculation analysis, and eventually developed a new software algorithm with collaborators. It only needs to use standard optical components to optimize the cycle of different wavelength structure lighting, and you can compensate for different wavelengths of wavelengths. The color difference between the intercourse and develop the corresponding Kaohsiung rate calibration process, so that the idea of ​​"structural light activation and structural light stimulation" can be implemented in engineering.

At the end of 2012, there was heavy snow outside the window, and the laboratory was still busy. After taking sample cells, Li Dong started testing the effect of new technical solutions.

Under a microscope, from the diffraction limit resolution of 100 nanometers to 60 nanometers, the veins of the microfilic skeleton in the cell gradually became clear. Staring at the screen, joy spread from the bottom of his heart. Li Dong only felt that he didn't look enough. He simply introduced the comparison chart as a screen warranty and introduced it to his colleagues over and over again.

Li Dong's first high -value aperture non -linear structured light obvious microscope technology breaks 100 nanometer limitations in one fell swoop, and increases the optical resolution of high -speed imaging of living cells to 60 nanometers, so that scientists have the opportunity to clearly see life activities in live cells Fine dynamics. This achievement appeared on the cover of Science Magazine in 2015.

"Scientific research can not fight alone, and scientists need to work together"

In 2015, Li Dong came to the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to engage in the research and development of super -distinguished micro -imaging technology and its biology application research.

Physics, optical engineering, automated control, precision mechanical design ... Li Dong's team has more than 20 people, covering 8 discipline directions. Their work includes the application of physical principles, engineering construction, automated control, and biological sample preparation observations.

"In addition to doing his job well, Mr. Li also asked us to master the knowledge of upstream and downstream." Wang Xinyu, an associate researcher at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that at the weekly cross -group exchange meeting, everyone learned each other and made up for the shortcomings. In the work gap, Li Dong often walked between different offices, asked about research progress, and answered questions in time. The advantages of the interdisciplinary cross are gradually highlighting: with the help of the high -resolution of the lighting structure of the incident structure, a variety of cells have been found in new behaviors. This achievement was selected as the top ten progress in China in 2018 selected by the Ministry of Science and Technology; Imaging algorithms can achieve the best super -distinguished image reconstruction effect under different imaging conditions; develop three -dimensional high time and space to distinguish biomechanical microscopy systems, which increases the space and time accuracy of biological force three -dimensional measurement by 5 times ...

"Scientific research cannot fight alone, and scientists need to work together." Li Dong said. Over the years, Li Dong has worked closely with nearly 30 laboratories at home and abroad to make a number of major original results.

One day in 2019, when Li Dong and his colleagues took a walk after dinner, the researcher Gao Yan mentioned an interesting phenomenon in the experiment. Li Dong was very interested. They walked into the laboratory while chatting, and then studied this issue in depth. Since then, they invited another colleague Deng Hongyu, who were in the same institution, to go all out. In May 2021, the research results were released in "Molecular Cell". For the first time, this study discovered that pathogenic microorganisms can regulate the separation of the host cells, which expands people's understanding of the complexity of macromolecular phase separation regulation.

"Strong learning ability", this is Luo Jincai's evaluation of Li Dong at the Professor of Molecular Medical Research Institute of Peking University's Future Technology Institute. For the first time, Li Dong asked many of his biological questions. The common interests made them immediately decide to use Li Dong's ultra -high resolution imaging system invented by Li Dong to study the formation of microfil skeleton rings and its regulatory mechanism during the secretion of endothelial cell secretion. In 2017, the relevant results were published in "Natural Communications", and Luo Jinzhi praised Li Dong "to enter the field of biology completely", while Li Dong called himself "second -hand biologists".

"Don't wait for someone, we just set off"

During studying abroad, Li Dong found that foreign biologists can use the most advanced optical microscope and even principles to observe, while Chinese scientists often need to use the principle of high -end optical microscope to use the prototype of the prototype of the prototype. This often takes many years. The optical engineering major is relatively unpopular, and many people have changed their careers midway, but Li Dong chose to persist. He wanted Chinese scientists to use advanced optical microscopes as soon as possible.

Entering Li Dong's laboratory, I saw a variety of microscopes on the workbench. A large number of optical elements form a complex link, and the position and angle of each component has been carefully debugged.

"This is the multi -mode structure of the multimodal structure of the light -resolution intelligent microscope ..." Pointing on a prototype on the workbench, Li Dongru was a number of treasures. This system integrates 6 lighting methods, which can flexibly select the most suitable imaging modal according to different biological problems to achieve the best super -distinguished imaging effect. In layman's terms, it can be used at a speed of 684 per second (equivalent to 27 times the movie screening speed), and 95 nanometer resolution (equivalent to one -2,000ths of the diameter of the hair) presents the life process in the entire cell range.

In order to improve the stability of the system, after the prototype is completed, they have continuously modified the mechanical structure and optical structure, and there are more than 100 versions of the light drawings. Within two years, the volume of the microscope has been reduced by 3/4. The stable working hours of the equipment have been extended from one week to one year without calibration. They successfully turned a laboratory's scientific research equipment into universal products. It took 11 years from the idea of ​​the idea to the landing.

Are you busy recently? busy! Wasn't the laboratory today? go! This is a dialogue between Li Dong and his lover on weekends. Li Dong made an example of climbing Everest: "Time does not wait for people, we just set off, and we may not have arrived at the base camp of climbing science. Maybe even the base camp is not known."

■ Reporter Notes

Love to climb the peak

Li Dong in life was silent, but when he talked about his work, he had endless words.

The seemingly contradictory personality is a vivid embodiment of an excellent quality of a science and technology worker: it is extremely loved by the career, has no heart, and devoted himself. In fact, the success of scientific research not only depends on intellectual factors, but also focuses on focus and diligence.

"It is necessary to put scientific research at your heart, so that there will be inadvertent surprises in life." This is a sentence that Li Dong often tells students. Only by doing scientific research, you can reach the peak and achieve extraordinary achievements without fear of fame and fortune, and not fear of difficulties and dangers.

(Source: People's Daily reporter Shi Fang)

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