Dickinson's group develops advanced optical microscopy methods for biological and biomedical imaging. Research directions: (1) STORM super-resolution microscopy — stochastic optical reconstruction for nanoscale imaging of biological structures at ~20 nm lateral resolution; imaging cytoskeletal dynamics, cellular organelles, and pathological structures; (2) Optical coherence tomography (OCT) — depth-resolved, label-free imaging for biomedical diagnostics (retinal, cardiovascular tissues); (3) Laser speckle imaging — blood flow and perfusion measurements in tissues; (4) Multiphoton microscopy — second harmonic generation (SHG) and two-photon for collagen structure imaging in connective tissues and cancer. Part of the Manchester Photon Science Institute biophotonics theme.

Nobel laureate W. E. Moerner, who first detected and studied single molecules optically, now develops engineered point-spread-function and orientation-resolved single-molecule localization microscopy methods to track individual biomolecules and their rotational dynamics in cells with nanometer precision, well beyond the optical diffraction limit.

Xu develops STORM and related single-molecule-localization super-resolution imaging methods, along with new fluorogenic and multiplexed labeling strategies, to visualize cellular ultrastructure at ~10-20 nm resolution. The group is actively recruiting postdocs.