Marisa Martin-Fernandez

Marisa is a microscopist with a passion for the life sciences, and in particular the biology of signalling receptors and their role in cancer. In 2003 during her career as PI, Marisa developed super-resolution imaging tools with sufficient spatial and time resolution to probe the structure-function relationships of signalling receptor complexes in the cell. Marisa also pioneered efforts to democratise the exploitation of the most sophisticated microscopy techniques for non-experts, and has been a lifelong advocate for this. Career highlights to date are:

Before establishing her independent lab, Marisa worked with synchrotron radiation. Identifying an opportunity to bypass the shortcomings of then unreliable pulsed, tuneable dye lasers, Marisa pioneered a plethora of time-resolved optical microscopy techniques that exploited the stability and tuneability of UV-visible pulsed synchrotron light. 
From 2003, she investigated the structure of active and inactive Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) complexes and the conformational changes that underpin signal transduction, Marisa pioneered a body of single molecule imaging methods with unprecedented resolution (<5 nm) to describe structure-function relationships of EGFR complexes in the cell. 

In 2017, Marisa recognised the potential of Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy (CLEM), particularly the combination of sub-diffraction limit “super-resolution” microscopy methods with electron microscopy. She focussed on the development of super-resolution microscopy in cryogenically fixed samples, resulting in the demonstration of cryogenic Single Molecule Localisation Microscopy (SMLM), using solid immersion lenses. This method has a resolution of 12 nm, the best yet achieved in cryo-fixed cells without using highly complex sample stages and optics.

While pursuing her research goals, she has been dedicated to delivering the methods she develops to the wider research community. Starting in 2010 Marisa established the Octopus Imaging Cluster. This facility groups together numerous state-of-the-art, and sometimes unique, technology developments, and is currently exploited by more than 70 groups.