W.E. Moerner

Biography
W. E. (William Esco) Moerner, the Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistryand Professor by courtesy of Applied Physics, has conducted research inphysical chemistry, biophysics, and the optical properties of singlemolecules, and is actively involved in the development of 2D and 3Dsuper-resolution imaging for cell biology. Imaging studies include viralRNA and proteins in infected cells, protein superstructures in bacteria andmammalian cells, and studies of chromatin organization. Using powerfulmicroscopes optimized for tracking of single objects in cells, the motionsof proteins, DNA, and RNA are being measured in three dimensions in realtime to understand organization, processing and binding interactions. Aprevious research area concerns precise analysis of photodynamics of singletrapped biomolecules in solution, with applications to photosynthesis,protein-protein interactions, and transport measurements.Born on June 24,1953 at Parks Air Force Base in Pleasanton, California, Professor Moernerwas raised in San Antonio, Texas. He attended Washington University as aLangsdorf Engineering Fellow, graduating in 1975 with degrees in Physicsand Electrical Engineering (both B.S. with top honors), and Mathematics(A.B. summa cum laude). His doctoral research in physics at CornellUniversity (M.S. 1978, Ph.D. 1982) employed tunable infrared lasers toexplore infrared vibrational modes of impurities in crystals. In 1982, hemoved from New York to San Jose, California to join the IBM ResearchDivision developing spectral holeburning for frequency domain opticalstorage and photorefractivity for dynamic hologram formation. After 13years at IBM, Dr. Moerner accepted a position as Distinguished Professor ofPhysical Chemistry at UC San Diego, where he broadened his research toinclude biological systems and biophysics. Recruited to the StanfordChemistry Department faculty in 1997, he served as Chair of the departmentfrom 2011 to 2014.Professor Moerners scientific contributions wererecognized with the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development ofsuper-resolved fluorescence microscopy." One method to surpass the opticaldiffraction limit (PALMSTORM) uses single-molecule imaging combined with anactive control mechanism to keep the concentration of emitting molecules ata very low level, followed by sequential localization to reconstruct theunderlying structure. The fundamentals of this idea came from early work inthe Moerner lab: optical detection and imaging of single molecules (1989)combined with blinking and switching at low temperature, as well as thediscovery of optical control and blinking of single copies of greenfluorescent protein at room temperature (1997). Among many other honors andawards, Professor Moerner was elected fellow of the American PhysicalSociety, Optical Society of America, American Association for theAdvancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, SPIE; andmember of the National Academy of Sciences.Today, the Moerner Laboratoryuses laser spectroscopy and microscopy of single molecules to probebiological processes, one molecule at a time. Primary thrusts includedevelopment and application of fluorescence microscopy far beyond theoptical diffraction limit by PALMSTORM, 3D single-molecule tracking incomplex cellular environments, invention and validation of methods forprecise and accurate 3D optical microscopy in cells, and imaging of viralRNA and proteins during cellular infection by SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Through avariety of collaborations, these approaches are applied to explore proteinand oligonucleotide localization patterns in mammalian cells and bacteria,define the organization of cell invasion proteins in parasites such asToxoplasma gondii, and develop correlative super-resolution optical imagingwith cryo-EM enhanced by suitable switchable fluorescent proteins for77K.Please visit the Moerner Lab home page for more information.