From Nanowerk News:

A new ultra-high resolution “nanoscope” is capable of taking 3-D images of an entire cell and its cellular constituents in unprecedented detail, an advance that could reveal biological phenomena never before seen and bring new medical insights.The work (Cell, “Ultra-High Resolution 3D Imaging of Whole Cells”) was carried out by researchers at Yale University, Purdue University, the University of Cambridge, the Jackson Laboratory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Oxford.

The technology incorporates several innovations in fluorescence microscopy and super-resolution microscopy and harnesses the same kind of “adaptive optics” technology used in astronomy – deformable mirrors that change shape to compensate for light distortion. In astronomy the deformable mirrors are used to compensate for atmospheric distortion to yield clear images of celestial objects. Deformable mirrors also can be used to counteract the distortion caused when light passes through biological tissue.

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Image Credit: Courtesy of Huang et al./Cell

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