Affimers are important tools for 'super-resolution' imaging

We have begun using Affimers - small non-antibody binding proteins, in 'super-resolution microscopy'. Their small size (~2nm - 10 fold smaller than antibodies) places an unique dye molecule close to the target of interest, resulting in a smaller linkage error (see green plot, in panel D), and enables them to penetrate dense cytoskeleton to label more efficiently than antibodies (see magenta staining - for Affimer in cytokinetic furrow) (for more see Tiede et al., ELife, 2017).)