cellular imaging
Cool Videos: Looking Inside Living Cells
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Cell biologists now possess an unprecedented set of laboratory tools to look inside living cells and study their inner workings. Many of these tools have only recently appeared, while others have deeper historical roots. Combining the best of the old with the best of the new, researchers now have the power to explore the biological underpinnings of life in ways never seen before.
That’s the story of this video from the lab of Roberto Weigert, an intramural researcher with NIH’s National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Weigert is a cell biologist who specializes in intravital microscopy (IVM), an extremely high-resolution imaging tool that traces its origins to the 19th century. What’s unique about IVM is its phenomenal resolution can be used in living animals, allowing researchers to watch biological processes unfold in organs under real physiological conditions and in real time.
