A new technique for imaging whole cells in liquid – with a nanometer resolution that brings into focus individual proteins and other intracellular structures – could dramatically improve the study of cancer, viral infections and brain function.
The technique, electron microscopy (EM) of liquids, also may improve our understanding of reactions in energy storage materials, which has relevance for the development of improved batteries, and our understanding of liquid phase processes such as corrosion and electrochemical deposition.
Thus say two pioneers in the field: Niels de Jonge, assistant professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University; and Frances Ross, a scientist at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.