#structured illumination microscopy

[theartmuseumoflifescience]

子宮頸がん細胞株HeLa細胞の糸状仮足の映像です。 細胞が移動する際、進行方向先にできるのが葉状仮足と糸状仮足です。

Filopodia in a HeLa Cell

[theartmuseumoflifescience]

エンドサイトーシス関連の分子クラスリン（緑色）とアクチン（赤色）の相互作用を捉えたSIM（構造化照明顕微鏡）映像です。

エンドサイトーシス（細胞膜内への取り込み）の1種であるクラスリン依存性エンドサイトーシスに必須なクラスリン分子をmEmerald-clathrinで可視化、アクチンをmCherry-Lifeactで可視化しています。

High NA SIM of Actin Clathrin Interactions

[fruitsoftheweb]

"A Congo red stained mite under 405 nm LED light excitation”

[bpod-bpod]

Life in HD

High definition televisions make everything look sharp and crisp – individual blades of grass sway on football fields, the occasional hair might be spotted on a celebrity’s chin. So just imagine what our insides might look like in HD. Here, a technique called Structured Illumination Microscopy was used to sharpen-up the textures of a single human cell. Hundreds of low-resolution images were taken from slightly different angles, then reconstructed into a high-resolution image to reveal tiny hidden structures. Rather than appearing as a blur, we can see individual ‘bones’ in the cytoplasm’s skeleton. Each microtubule, highlighted here in green, is 50,000 times smaller than a human rib and works to protect the cell’s precious energy factories, the mitochondria, highlighted in pink. One can only wonder about the future - what other hidden details might be revealed by pulling the world inside us into focus?

Written by John Ankers

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Andrew York

National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, NIH, USA

Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Methods Copyright 2012

Published in Nature Methods 9: 749-754