#super resolution microscopy

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Beyond the Quail

It’s often an agonising decision for a biologist: where to focus? The individual cell, or the whole tissue? Fortunately, as technology advances, it’s sometimes possible to choose both. Here researchers watch cells in a developing quail embryo swirling into patterns that will define its circulatory system. The embryo is transgenic (has gene/s introduced by genetic engineering), and switching on artificial genes in its cells produces fluorescence spotted by a powerful microscope. Using impressive computer analysis of images captured over a wide field of view, rainbow colours reveal cells at different depths in the embryo, with cooler colours deeper within the tissue. The team analyse the movements of these endothelial cells over 24 hours, revealing details about the behaviour of these cells in 'real life' and giving clues to the development of similar tissues in human embryos.

Written by John Ankers

Video from work by Taro Ichimura and colleagues

Transdimensional Life Imaging Division, Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research, Initiatives, Osaka University, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, February 2025

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Natural Chemistry

Chemistry and biology have always worked hand in hand. Biochemists explore the chemical properties that make biological processes work – revealing huge variety in the proteins, sugars, fats and acids that make up our metabolism, genetic code, cells and well… everything else. Chemistry is also vital when considering biocompatibility – how suited foreign chemicals might be to life inside the body. Artificial polymer blends, like these pictured, might be used to make implants – but the chemical properties of 'new' polymer mixtures are unknown. Here a new super resolution microscopy technique, zooms in on colourful dyes, some of which are repelled by oxygen-containing chemical groups, leaving black swirls in detailed chemical patterns invisible to the naked eye. Such details may make a difference when choosing biocompatible polymers and perhaps between a successful surgery and a rejected implant – underline the importance of keeping an eye on the chemistry.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Dongmin Lee, Uidon Jeong and Doory Kim

Department of Chemistry, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in Science Advances, March 2025

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Travelling Light

Important proteins are constantly moving from where they are shaped, in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), to the Golgi apparatus where they are packaged for an onward journey. In order to keep the process going, chaperone proteins that 'escape' to the Golgi must be returned to the ER. It’s a bit like luggage trays being returned after taking bags through airport security (although around one million times smaller). In this cell, a technique called photoactivated localisation microscopy follows the movements of KDEL receptors (highlighted by blue lines) as they help to shuttle the chaperones back – sometimes travelling long distances (lighter blue) for this vital rescue mission. This fast process is just one example of a biological cycle that keeps cellular life ticking over.

Written by John Ankers

Image captured at the Micron Imaging Facility, in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford

Image from work by Andreas Gerondopoulos and Danny Gold

Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Image copyright held by Andreas Gerondopoulos and Danny Gold

Referring to research published in eLife, July 2021

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Blowing Up Fast

Expansion microscopy – which physically enlarges fixed, labelled tissue and organism specimens for easier and broader field visualisation – rendered high-throughput, super resolution and scaleable with a new method called HiExM

Read the published research article here

Image from work by John H Day and colleagues

Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, November 2024

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Details of Adhesion

Two additional actin filament layers within focal adhesions – the points at which a cell's inner workings connect with the extracellular matrix to regulate cell functions – discovered using a kind of super-resolution microscopy called iPALM

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Reena Kumari and colleagues

HiLIFE Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, March 2024

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Mapping the Changes

Expansion microscopy 'blows up' tissue samples in 3D enabling easy visualisation of small structures. Here a new tool called GelMap – an embedded fluorescent reference grid – calibrates the field of view and corrects for any resulting deformations

Read the published research paper here

Image from work by Hugo G. J. Damstra and Josiah B. Passmore, and colleagues

Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Methods, September 2023

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Gather Round

The immune system's B cells recognise their foe (antigens) with receptors (also known as immunoglobulin or antibody) on their cell surface. Here, super resolution microscopy combined with 4D image analysis reveals how these receptors on the cell surface localise into clusters as ridges and finger-like projections called microvilli to aid recognition of their targets

Read the published research paper here

Video adapted from work by Deniz Saltukoglu and colleagues

Department of Molecular Immunology, Biology III, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in The EMBO Journal, January 2023

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Nanoscale Remodelling

Remodelling is complicated, whether it's your house or your bones. Bone remodelling happens when your bones are damaged, whether that's a fracture or everyday strain. Cells called osteoclasts jump into action to break down old bone so new bone can form. Anchoring themselves to the bone, they form a ring-like structure called the sealing zone, into which bone-degrading substances are released without leaking away. Projections made of actin – podosomes – help form the sealing zone, but their organisation at the nanoscale level is unclear. Researchers use super-resolution microscopy to investigate. Human osteoclasts, containing fluorescently tagged actin, were live imaged adhering to bone (pictured). This revealed densely packed actin cores, which form the centre of podosomes, in the sealing zone. Further analysis revealed the activity of these cores was synchronised locally, with groups of cores surrounded by adhesion proteins. This shines a light on the nanoscale lives of podosomes in bone remodelling.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Video from work by Marion Portes and colleagues

Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, June 2022

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