Peering into living cells without dye or fluorophore

R&D Mag ^ | 2-8-2013

[Sir Napsalot]

Two young EPFL scientists have developed a device that can create 3D images of living cells and track their reaction to various stimuli without the use of contrast dyes or fluorophores.

In the world of microscopy, this advance is almost comparable to the leap from photography to live television. Two young EPFL researchers, Yann Cotte and Fatih Toy, have designed a device that combines holographic microscopy and computational image processing to observe living biological tissues at the nanoscale. Their research is being done under the supervision of Christian Depeursinge, head of the Microvision and Microdiagnostics Group in EPFL's School of Engineering.

Using their setup, 3D images of living cells can be obtained in just a few minutes—instantaneous operation is still in the works—at an incredibly precise resolution of less than 100 nm, 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. And because they're able to do this without using contrast dyes or fluorescents, the experimental results don't run the risk of being distorted by the presence of foreign substances.

[Sir Napsalot]

Interesting. Promising.

[ComputerGuy]

This is a huge leap forward, methinks.

[Sir Napsalot]

Yep, if it holds true.

The door(s) could be opened potentially are huge.

[dangerdoc]

bump