Courtesy of Leica MicrosystemsConfocal and multiphoton microscopes are standard fare in academic imaging facilities, but ultrahigh-resolution systems generally have a smaller user base – namely, their inventors. Soon facilities around the world can have a piece of the pie – 4Pi, that is.Leica Microsystems http://www.leica-microsystems.com recently introduced a new microscope featuring the 4Pi technology developed by Stefan Hell of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, G

GETTING ON YOUR NERVES:Left: courtesy of Anthony Windebank; right courtesy of Christine SchmidtTo facilitate nerve regrowth, tissue engineers employ biodegradable polymer scaffolds. Shown at left, a micrograph of an actual scaffold used to stimulate spinal cord regeneration in rats. Center, a piece of neural tissue grows on an electrically conductive polymer used primarily for peripheral nerve repair (image colored for effect). At right, stained section of a peripheral nerve showing axons in red

© Nature Publishing GroupDespite buzzworthy applications such as cryptography and nanoelectronics, bio-molecular computing – the use of macromolecules such as DNA and enzymes to perform computations – will likely never match electronic computing in its speed and scalability. But a group of researchers, led by Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, has found a promising "killer app" for biomolecular computing: molecular-scale diagnostics.1Using software programmed in g

Courtesy of DefiniensBromodeoxyuridine-stained tissue of mouse small intestine (original image, left; and Cellenger analysis, right). Cellenger has extracted whole crypts on a larger scale and distinguishes between mitotic and non-mitotic nuclei on a smaller scale.Propelled by the pharmaceutical industry, the high-content imaging field has experienced rapid growth, with several major new instrument releases in the past two years. High-throughput image analysis has lagged behind, however, because

Courtesy of Lyncean TechnologiesAdvanced synchrotron radiation sources have revolutionized structural biology, allowing X-ray crystallographers to solve complex macromolecular structures. But as few of these soccer field-sized facilities exist worldwide, researchers have only limited access to them. Now researcher Ronald Ruth at the Stanford University Linear Accelerator Center has designed and is currently building a new desktop-sized synchrotron source called the Compact Light Source (CLS) tha

RNA SWITCH:©2004 Nature Publishing GroupThe GlmS enzyme, which is involved in GlcN6P synthesis, is translated from mRNA containing a ribozyme sequence. GlcN6P activates the ribozyme cleaving the mRNA sequence and turning enzyme production off. (Redrawn from T.R. Cech, Nature, 428:263–4, 2004)Coming from various directions, a number of research groups stumbled upon a naturally occurring mechanism for gene control that depends solely on RNA and environmental cues. Though the working det

Courtesy of GT VisionHistologists and pathologists examining slide after slide each day now have a new tool to ease their microscopy headaches and dramatically increase their throughput as well. Surveyor, an automated imaging system from Frederick, Md.-based GT Vision http://www.gt-vision.com scans whole sections at 25 fields of view per second. The system includes a motorized microscope stage, high-specification workstation PC, and camera, according to company literature.Users view slides on a

©2004 Nature Publishing GroupGenomic RNA interference (RNAi) libraries have proven valuable resources for scientists who study Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans. Mammalian libraries, though, have lagged behind. No longer: Teams at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (CSHL)1 in New York and the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NCI)2 in Amsterdam have separately created human libraries that target between 8,000 and 9,000 genes.While both sites used state-of-the-art technology, knowledge about RN

Tracking down the genes behind non-Mendelian traits can be complicated given the sheer numbers of genes involved. Now Eric Lander of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass., Joseph Nadeau of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and colleagues have created a resource that could make the job easier.1The researchers bred a series of 22 C57BL/6J mouse strains, each containing a single chromosome or mitochondrial DNA from an A/J donor. This chromosomal substitut

INSIDE THE MIND OF A FLY:Courtesy of Rachel JoynesDorsoventral view of a thin section through the larval central nervous system of the fruit fly, stained in red for serotonin, and in green for dopaminergic and sertonergic neurons. The cell bodies are at the lower ventral part of the photos, and above the cell bodies is an extensive array of synaptic varicosities.To the uninitiated, three-dimensional microscopy makes the pretty pictures of fluorescently labeled cells that grace the covers of scie

ELECTROPORATION ACTION:Courtesy of James Rae, The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.At left, two α-Tn4 cells in the process of completing cell division. Each contains the protein products encoded by ECFP-vimentin and dsRed1-mito plasmids electroporated into one of the cells on consecutive days. At right, an example of successful serial single-cell electroporation on three consecutive days. The plasmids used: dsRed1-mito on day one, EYFP-Golgi on day two, and ECFP-vimentin on day three.To date, e

Courtesy of Jillian BanfieldA group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, struck gold in the drainage of an abandoned California mine. Using whole-genome shotgun sequencing, Jillian Banfield and colleagues reconstructed the genomes of microbes found in a pink biofilm that thrives in this extremely acidic environment.1 While other scientists have studied organisms using a similar metagenomics, or environmental genomics, approach (most recently J. Craig Venter and colleagues2),