[HN Gopher] Super-resolution microscopes reveal new details of c...
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Super-resolution microscopes reveal new details of cells and
disease
Author : rbanffy
Score : 73 points
Date : 2025-07-18 21:13 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (knowablemagazine.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (knowablemagazine.org)
| Zealotux wrote:
| Sorry for being a bit off-topic. Biology wasn't my forte in high
| school, I wish I had read this article back then
| https://jsomers.net/i-should-have-loved-biology/ and seen that
| video (9:08 min)
| https://youtu.be/WFCvkkDSfIU?si=12bbZajsUnYagD4_&t=15
| Jessibot wrote:
| This looks really good, thanks for sharing!
| HSO wrote:
| That's a _very_ good magazine iirc. I discovered it during the
| pandemic and remember how stunned i was that i had been unaware
| of such a high quality science magazine. Thanks for reminder that
| i should drive by this website more often.
| abeppu wrote:
| > As the probes twinkle on and off, computational models estimate
| exactly where each molecule is located -- and reconstruct a high-
| resolution image of the sample.
|
| How do time and motion fit in with these techniques? I'm dimly
| aware that the molecular machinery inside cells moves pretty
| fast, and that a lot of things move around randomly. In normal
| size ranges that kind of thing would naturally make it hard to
| get a clear picture. Do these imaging techniques require that
| stuff be frozen or specially prepared? Or do the techniques
| themselves work so fast that they can get a snapshot regardless?
| vonzepp wrote:
| Yes. This isn't for dynamic events.
| EColi wrote:
| The cells are "fixed" (with paraformaldehyde (PFA) for
| example), so yes these are snapshots but not because the
| technique is fast. These techniques can actually be quite slow
| because you need to collect enough blinks to reconstruct the
| final image.
| jkh1 wrote:
| You can track things in live cells with MINFLUX, one of the
| recent super-resolution techniques coming from Stefan Hell's
| lab. Edit: add MINFLUX review: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.15902
| ClaraForm wrote:
| Other commenters are wrong. Live-cell can be done with older
| single-molecule localization microscopy using techniques like
| PAINT. The fluorophore is usually strategically added in a way
| that binding-unbinding events cause excitation. Algorithms can
| then infer identity of single fluorophores based on their
| excitation pattern/strength and can predict whether it's two
| distinct fluorophore molecules or the same molecule moving over
| multiple frames of image acquisition.
| forgotpwagain wrote:
| There are biotech companies like Eikon Therapeutics
| (https://www.eikontx.com/ ) where super-resolution microscopy in
| living cells is a central part of the platform.
|
| There is also one widespread approach that isn't mentioned in the
| article: expansion microscopy. Expansion takes the scifi-sounding
| approach of: what if you could make your sample physically
| bigger? See the Wikipedia page for more:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_microscopy
| ClaraForm wrote:
| Couple more notes:
|
| 1. Stephen Hell has been theorizing about how to do super-res
| microscopy since the mid-90s, so the article saying it was sci-
| fi "20 years ago" is off by about 10 years.
|
| 2. Stephen Hell has recently given the world another new
| technique, MINFLUX, which seems to be his best gift to super-
| res researchers so far. :)
| jimkleiber wrote:
| I love when I come across something super niche on HN where I
| actually know someone working in it. A friend of mine from
| college (university), Ibrahim Cisse, now runs a lab[0] in this
| space, and while the description of his work is way over my head,
| I imagine some of you might find it interesting:
|
| > Laboratory Ibrahim Cisse > Single Molecule and Super-Resolution
| imaging in live cells > We leverage expertise in Single-Molecule
| and Super-Resolution imaging in live cells to study collective
| behaviors (e.g., protein clustering) emerging from weak or
| transient biomolecular interactions in mammalian cells. We
| unveil, often for the first time, that these clusters exist in
| living cells, and we expand both on the imaging approaches and
| the cellular and molecular biology techniques to discover the
| biophysical mechanisms of action and their function in vivo.
|
| Or for a quick layman's explanation, here's a YouTube video of
| him describing his work when he won a MacArthur Fellowship [1].
|
| I'm grateful for HN for reminding me of him and giving me an
| excuse to look up his work a little more in-depth.
|
| [0]: https://www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/cisse
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXYof3RQ_WU
| j7ake wrote:
| "runs a lab" is putting it lightly. He's a Max Planck institute
| director. This means essentially limitless funds for his own
| research and can shape hiring of faculty in his institute.
| jimkleiber wrote:
| Haha fair, I think I thought the Max Planck role was
| prestigious but 1) didn't know what it entailed and 2) maybe
| feared to almost boast about knowing such a cool person.
|
| Thank you for saying that and helping me better understand
| what it means.
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