Viewing Nanoscale Structures inside Whole Cells

Reading time: 3 minutes

Today’s Lab.Equipment Bio Technology news is sourced from GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News:

Scientists at Purdue University and collaborators say they have developed a new technology that allows the visualization of nanoscale structures inside whole cells. The team’s technology is described in a paper “Three-dimensional nanoscopy of whole cells and tissues with in situ point spread function retrieval” in Nature Methods., and a video showing an animated 3D super-resolution.

“Single-molecule localization microscopy is a powerful tool for visualizing subcellular structures, interactions and protein functions in biological research. However, inhomogeneous refractive indices inside cells and tissues distort the fluorescent signal emitted from single-molecule probes, which rapidly degrades resolution with increasing depth. We propose a method that enables the construction of an in situ 3D response of single emitters directly from single-molecule blinking datasets, and therefore allows their locations to be pinpointed with precision that achieves the Cramér-Rao lower bound and uncompromised fidelity,” write the investigators.

“We demonstrate this method, named in situ PSF retrieval (INSPR), across a range of cellular and tissue architectures, from mitochondrial networks and nuclear pores in mammalian cells to amyloid-β plaques and dendrites in brain tissues and elastic fibers in developing cartilage of mice. This advancement expands the routine applicability of super-resolution microscopy from selected cellular targets near coverslips to intra- and extracellular targets deep inside tissues.”

“Our technology allows us to measure wavefront distortions induced by the specimen, either a cell or a tissue, directly from the signals generated by single molecules – tiny light sources attached to the cellular structures of interest,” said Fang Huang, PhD, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in Purdue’s College of Engineer... Read more at the GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News Blog.

Handling Biotech applications such as probe labelling or protein labelling applications and scouting for premium Biotech products for your facility? You can rely on Lab.Equipment for a broad variety of equipment from globally trusted brands like:

• Scilogex
• Being Instrument
• Radwag
• Ohaus

Find valuable and user-friendly Biotech laboratory equipment highly recommended for basic and advanced Biotech applications by going though our inventory of:

• Laboratory Centrifuges
• Laboratory Pipettes
• Laboratory Balances
• Stirrers
• Laboratory Mixers

Dealing with other scientific or industrial applications? No need to worry. Lab.Equipment has you covered. Go though our range of premium lab equipment for veterinary, forensics, microbiology, applications and more.