Education and Training
Robert Prevedel is a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg since 2016. Robert obtained his PhD in experimental physics from the University of Vienna (Austria) in 2009. In his postdoctoral years, first at the University of Waterloo (Canada) during 2009-2011 and later at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna (Austria), Robert worked on innovative optical methods and tools for imaging in biology, with a focus on functional neuroimaging in small model organisms.
Expertise
The focus of our group at EMBL is to push the frontiers of light microscopy in terms of imaging depths and resolution by developing advanced and innovative optical imaging techniques. We also actively engage in developing and establishing unconventional imaging approaches such as Brillouin microscopy to ‘image’ mechanical properties of living tissues in a non-contact fashion and with diffraction-limited resolution in 3D. The ultimate goal of our research is the direct application of our newly developed methods to fundamental and previously inaccessible biological questions, with an emphasis on the mouse model. Our multidisciplinary team comprises of physicists, engineers, computer scientists and biologists, and we engage in close collaboration with fellow groups within and outside of EMBL in the fields of cell and developmental biology as well as neuroscience.
- Optical Imaging Technologies
- Development of optical elastography methods based on Brillouin scattering to measure mechanical properties of biological samples
- Role of mechanics in tumor biology
Platform Imaging
C. Bevilacqua and R. Prevedel†. Full-field Brillouin microscopy based on an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer. Nature Photonics 19, 494–501 (2025); arXiv: 2409.02092 (2024).
J.M. Gomez†, C. Bevilacqua, A. Thayambath, M. Leptin, J. Belmonte and R. Prevedel†. Highly dynamic mechanical transitions in embryonic cell populations during Drosophila gastrulation. Nature Communications 16, 6473 (2025); bioRxiv: 2024.08.29.610383 (2024).
M. Schubert*, S. Soyka*, A. Tamimi*, E. Maus, R. Denninger, N. Wissmann, E. Reyhan, S. Tetzlaff, C. Beretta, M. Drumm, J. Schroers, A. Steffens, J. Walshon, K. McCortney, S. Heiland, A. Golebiewska, F. Kurz, W. Wick, F. Winkler, A. Kreshuk, T. Kuner, C. Horbinski, R. Prevedel†,* and V. Venkataramani†,* Deep intravital brain tumor imaging enabled by tailored three-photon microscopy and analysis. Nature Communications 15, 7383 (2024); bioRxiv:2023.06.17.545350 (2023)
F. Yang†, C. Bevilacqua, S. Hambura, A. Neves, A. Gopalan, K. Watanabe, M. Govendir, M. Bernabeu, J. Ellenberg, A. Diz-Muñoz, S. Köhler, G. Rapti, M. Jechlinger, and R. Prevedel†. Pulsed stimulated Brillouin microscopy enables high-sensitivity mechanical imaging of live and fragile biological specimens. Nature Methods 20, 1971-1979 (2023); bioRxiv: 2022.11.10.515835 (2022).
C. Bevilacqua, J.M. Gomez, U.-M. Fiuza, C.J. Chan, L. Wang, S. Hambura, M. Eguren, J. Ellenberg, A. Diz-Muñoz, M. Leptin and R. Prevedel†. High-resolution line-scan Brillouin microscopy for live-imaging of mechanical properties during embryo development. Nature Methods 20, 755–760 (2023). bioRxiv: 2022.04.25.489364 (2022).
L. Streich, J. Boffi, L. Wang, K. Alhalaseh, M. Barbieri, R. Rehm, S. Deivasigamani, C. Gross, A. Agarwal, and R. Prevedel†. High-resolution structural and functional deep brain imaging using adaptive optics three-photon microscopy. Nature Methods 18, 1253-1258 (2021). bioRxiv:2021.01.12.426323
R. Prevedel†, A. Diz-Muñoz†, G. Ruocco and G. Antonacci. Brillouin microscopy - an emerging tool for mechanobiology Nature Methods 16, 969–977 (2019). ArXiv:1901.02006
Carlo Bevilacqua | Optical Engineer | ||
Juan Manuel Gomez Eliff | Postdoc | ||
Jinhao Li | PhD Student |
Lung Research - Projects
1. High-resolution optical microscopy of lung tissue mechanics
The role and importance of mechanical properties of cells and tissues in cellular function, development and disease has widely been acknowledged, however standard techniques currently used to assess them exhibit intrinsic limitations. Our group at EMBL Heidelberg is developing and applying Brillouin microscopy (BM) as a new method to non-invasively measure tissue elasticity at high-resolution in 3D. This also involves correlative imaging in order to establishing BM in biology, but also to understand how lung structure and mechanics are related on a macroscopic as well as cellular and/or subcellular scale in health and disease.
2. Advanced microscopy tools for deep tissue imaging
Lung tissue represents one of the most challenging microscopy samples, due to its heterogenic structure that causes severe optical aberrations and light attenuation. Our group actively develops optical approaches based on multiphoton microscope, adaptive optics and tissue stabilization to overcome these limitations and enable high-resolution optical imaging of fluorescence and label-free contrast (SHG/THG) in lung tissues ex-vivo, and potentially in a minimally invasive way in-vivo in the future.
