The Invisible – Nobel Prize Museum | Science Today

During the evening’s program we dive into the most fascinating frontier areas of natural science. Here, researchers work with phenomena that are incredibly small, and sometimes cannot be seen with the human eye.

From particles smaller than atoms to galaxies billions of light years away, we build understanding for advanced methods, models and instruments that make the invisible visible. The evening’s speakers talk about technologies such as telescopes, microscopes and computer simulations and how these open doors to worlds we could never have imagined.

Welcome to the 14th edition of the Science Todaywith the theme The invisiblewhere three speakers from Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University talk about their research. Science Today is a recurring afterwork that starts the weekend with a mix of highly current research and music from some of Stockholm’s best DJs.

Next opportunity for Science Today is May 22 with the theme Cells.

Tonight’s speaker

David Unnersjö-Jess

Subject: Unraveling the hidden architecture of the renal filter using super-resolution microscopy

Kidney disease often begins with subtle and complex damage to the kidney’s filtration barrier—changes that are largely invisible with conventional methods.

In this talk, Unnersjö-Jess will show how nanoscale 3D optical microscopy can reveal the hidden architecture of the kidney filter and convert complex changes in tissue structure into measurable, quantitative data. The goal is to improve diagnostics by being able to predict disease course and treatment response, while making the development of new treatments for kidney disease faster and more cost-effective.

David Unnersjö-Jess is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health at Karolinska Institutet and Department II of Internal Medicine, at the University of Cologne in Germany.

Josefine Waldthaler

Subject: Through the skull: Making the invisible visible in Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is a highly visible brain disease: it changes the way a person moves, speaks and interacts with the outside world. Yet the changes in the brain that cause these symptoms remain hidden. For good reason, our brains are encased in a thick skull—excellent for survival, but frustrating for scientists trying to understand what’s going on inside.

For centuries, insight into the Parkinsonian brain meant relying on animal models, postmortem tissue, or the rare occasions when a patient underwent brain surgery. Today, advanced neuroimaging techniques allow us to see through this barrier and study the living brain at work.

As both a clinical neurologist and researcher, Waldthaler has worked with people with Parkinson’s disease for the past ten years – both in the clinic and in the laboratory. In this talk, she will introduce the neuroimaging techniques that build bridges between these two worlds: some used in clinical practice to diagnose Parkinson’s disease, others pushing the boundaries of research.

By combining structural and functional imaging of the brain, we are beginning to make visible the invisible: why no two people with Parkinson’s disease are ever the same, why some respond to treatment while others do not, and how the brain itself fights the disease.

Group leader for “Functional neuroimaging in movement disorders”, Daniel Lundqvist’s research group at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet.

Giacomo Bortolini

Subject: The invisible becomes visible with the James Webb telescope

Since its launch in December 2021, the James Webb Telescope (JWST) has already revolutionized modern astronomy. With its powerful “infrared eyes” and unprecedented spatial resolution, JWST has opened entirely new windows on our universe – from the formation and evolution of galaxies to the birth of stars and planets.

In this talk, Bortolini will present some of the most exciting and timely discoveries made possible by JWST’s extraordinary capabilities, from the most distant galaxies ever observed to stunning images of nearby galaxies seen in a whole new way.

All research that Bortolini presents is currently conducted within the galaxy group at the Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University.

Giacomo Bortolini is a PhD student at the Department of Astronomy, galaxy group at Stockholm University.