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New microscope technique allows visualisation of cell contents

By evolvingthoughts on August 11, 2006.

New Light Microscope Images Cellular Proteins with Near-Molecular Resolution.

Advances in microscopy have fuelled biology. Here is a new approach that allows the visualisation of individual proteins, using fluorescent in situ hybridisation techniques. What's even more interesting is that the two researchers did this in their own time and at their own expense. They now have positions at Janelia Farm, at Florida State University.

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Philosophy of Science

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And in 1994, in work that was also published in Science, Hess and Betzig showed together that the closely packed points of light in a semiconductor could be individually isolated and studied.
...
In that earlier work, Hess said, �we developed something called spectroscopic near-field microscopy, where we spread out a spectrum of light across wavelengths into lots of little glowing things. And that technique allowed us to see the individual constituents of a generalized glow.�

I'll wait for the English translation.

�A great feature of PALM is that is can readily be used with electron microscopy, which produces a detailed image of very small structures � but not proteins � in cells,� she said.

Well, there's the delay of fixing samples and inserting them into high vacuum for the EM work.

The researchers also acknowledge that the time needed to collect the thousands of single molecule images that go into each PALM picture is cumbersome. With the camera snapping one to two pictures each second, it can take two to 12 hours to image a single sample.

Better hope your proteins stay put for a while.

By somnilista, FCD (not verified) on 11 Aug 2006 #permalink