Cells, Live and in 3-D

A new kind of microscope creates detailed, three-dimensional movies of living cells as they respond to changes in the environment.

MIT researchers have designed a microscope for generating three-dimensional movies of live cells. The microscope, which works like a cellular CT scanner, will let scientists watch how cells behave in real time at a greater level of detail. This new device overcomes a trade-off between resolution and live action that has hindered researchers' ability to examine cells and could lead to new methods for screening drugs.

Cells can't be examined under a traditional microscope because they don't absorb very much visible light. So the MIT microscope relies on another optical property of cells: how they refract light. As light passes through a cell, its direction and wavelength shift. Different parts of the cell refract light in different ways, so the MIT microscope can show the parts in all their detail.


To read more about this visit MIT Technology Review - Cells, Alive and in 3-D

Here is a link of a three-dimensional rendering of a live cervical cancer cell using this 3-D microscopy.

Please see the attachment for images of a cervical cancer cell taken using this new tomographic phase microscopy technique.

Figures a and b show 3D images of the cell. The green structures represent the nucleolus. The nucleus, not visible in these images, surrounds the nucleolus. The red areas are unidentified cell organelles. Figures c through h show the 2D images from which the 3D images were generated. In these images, each color represents a different range of refractive index.

Image Credit - Michael Feld laboratory, MIT

Thanks Tony,
This is a very usefull site. The images are excelent
Guy

Nice images, but hardly innovative. There are a number of companies I work with that have been producing eqipment for 3D rendering for quite some time. What MIT did was make the images a little clearer, which also is hardly innovative. What is new is 4D real time imaging.