That’s a very good magazine iirc. I discovered it during the pandemic and remember how stunned i was that i had been unaware of such a high quality science magazine. Thanks for reminder that i should drive by this website more often.
> As the probes twinkle on and off, computational models estimate exactly where each molecule is located — and reconstruct a high-resolution image of the sample.
How do time and motion fit in with these techniques? I'm dimly aware that the molecular machinery inside cells moves pretty fast, and that a lot of things move around randomly. In normal size ranges that kind of thing would naturally make it hard to get a clear picture. Do these imaging techniques require that stuff be frozen or specially prepared? Or do the techniques themselves work so fast that they can get a snapshot regardless?
There are biotech companies like Eikon Therapeutics (https://www.eikontx.com/ ) where super-resolution microscopy in living cells is a central part of the platform.
There is also one widespread approach that isn't mentioned in the article: expansion microscopy. Expansion takes the scifi-sounding approach of: what if you could make your sample physically bigger? See the Wikipedia page for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_microscopy
I love when I come across something super niche on HN where I actually know someone working in it. A friend of mine from college (university), Ibrahim Cissé, now runs a lab[0] in this space, and while the description of his work is way over my head, I imagine some of you might find it interesting:
> Laboratory Ibrahim Cissé
> Single Molecule and Super-Resolution imaging in live cells
> We leverage expertise in Single-Molecule and Super-Resolution imaging in live cells to study collective behaviors (e.g., protein clustering) emerging from weak or transient biomolecular interactions in mammalian cells. We unveil, often for the first time, that these clusters exist in living cells, and we expand both on the imaging approaches and the cellular and molecular biology techniques to discover the biophysical mechanisms of action and their function in vivo.
Or for a quick layman's explanation, here's a YouTube video of him describing his work when he won a MacArthur Fellowship [1].
I'm grateful for HN for reminding me of him and giving me an excuse to look up his work a little more in-depth.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 41.2 ms ] threadHow do time and motion fit in with these techniques? I'm dimly aware that the molecular machinery inside cells moves pretty fast, and that a lot of things move around randomly. In normal size ranges that kind of thing would naturally make it hard to get a clear picture. Do these imaging techniques require that stuff be frozen or specially prepared? Or do the techniques themselves work so fast that they can get a snapshot regardless?
There is also one widespread approach that isn't mentioned in the article: expansion microscopy. Expansion takes the scifi-sounding approach of: what if you could make your sample physically bigger? See the Wikipedia page for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_microscopy
> Laboratory Ibrahim Cissé > Single Molecule and Super-Resolution imaging in live cells > We leverage expertise in Single-Molecule and Super-Resolution imaging in live cells to study collective behaviors (e.g., protein clustering) emerging from weak or transient biomolecular interactions in mammalian cells. We unveil, often for the first time, that these clusters exist in living cells, and we expand both on the imaging approaches and the cellular and molecular biology techniques to discover the biophysical mechanisms of action and their function in vivo.
Or for a quick layman's explanation, here's a YouTube video of him describing his work when he won a MacArthur Fellowship [1].
I'm grateful for HN for reminding me of him and giving me an excuse to look up his work a little more in-depth.
[0]: https://www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/cisse
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXYof3RQ_WU