Application and Development of Expansion Microscopy for Nanoscale Imaging of Eukaryotic Nuclei

This thesis utilised expansion microscopy to reveal sub-diffraction detail of interactions between Hendra virus M protein and sub-compartments of the nucleolus in the cell nucleus. It was shown that wild-type and mutant protein isoforms exhibited distinct behaviours, providing insight into Hendra virus infection mechanisms. Expansion microscopy was also applied to visualise the distribution of epigenetic markers in the T cell nucleus establishing that spatial positioning of marks is a key component of their regulatory function. Lastly, expansion microscopy was combined with single-molecule super resolution to reveal the octameric structure of the nuclear pore complex in T cell nuclei.