A super-high-resolution 3-D light microscope developed at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry will allow biologists to watch the workings of the tiniest organelles and even individual clusters of proteins in living cells. The new technology, which has a resolution of 40 nanometers, overcomes some major limitations in existing microscopy techniques and could have important applications in dissecting exactly how drugs impact cells.

"[It's] a tour de force--a major accomplishment," says John Sedat, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Using the Max Planck microscope and others that are pushing nanoscale resolution, biologists will be able to watch how live cells work at an unprecedented level of detail. "It's going to be a revolution for biology," says Sedat, who was not involved in the research.

In recent decades, biologists have made great strides in understanding the molecular makeup of cells, but how these parts add up to functioning cells and tissues is still something of a mystery. Using light microscopes, biologists can watch living cells at relatively low resolution; using electron microscopy, they can carefully dissect dead cells.  Read More...