Coming To A Theater Near You
With never-before-seen realism, the horrifying image leaps from the screen, engulfing the hapless viewer. Is it a 3-D Frankenstein? 3-D vampires? No, it's more like a 3-D mitochondria.
By working with computer scientists, physicists, and other biologists, Fredric S. Fay, professor of physiology and pharmacology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, has developed a technology that lets researchers "walk inside a cell." Digital imaging microscopy (which uses a computer-operated microscope linked to a camera) displays molecular changes through time in two- and three-dimensional images 1,000 times faster than other video imaging systems. Says Fay of this technology, which recently earned the university four patents, "I think the technique will be a very powerful tool" for an array of bioscientists. The new Program of Molecular Medicine at UMMC plans to exploit this technology to study the regulation of smooth muscle in blood ...
