This is a project for a summer school devoted to the foundations and applications of plasmonics, to be held on the island of Porquerolles (France) from September 13th to September 17th. We’re hoping to get a bunch of brilliant speakers for the lessons.

More info at http://n.bonod.free.fr/SSOP.html !!

For interested people, please contact me or Nicolas Bonod at the Fresnel Institute.

In the November issue of Histochemistry and Cell Biology : open access to download here

Abstract:  During the past years, nanophotonics has provided new approaches to study the biological processes below the optical diffraction limit. How single molecules diffuse, bind and assemble can be studied now at the nanometric level, not only in solutions but also in complex and crowded environments such as in live cells. In this context fluorescence fluctuations spectroscopy is a unique tool since it has proven to be easy to use in combination with nanostructures, which are able to confine light in nanometric volumes. We review here recent advances in fluorescence fluctuations’ analysis below the optical diffraction limit with a special focus on nanoapertures milled in metallic films. We discuss applications in the field of single-molecule detection, DNA sequencing and membrane organization, and underscore some potential perspectives of this new emerging technology.

Keywords:  Biophotonics - Single molecules - Fluorescence fluctuations - Nanostructures - Plasma membrane