Cutting-Edge Techniques in Microscopy

Abstract

Perhaps more than in any other science, in biology seeing really is believing. The basic unit of life, the cell, was only discovered when microscopes became available, and as such the fundamental understanding of biology has been inextricably linked to microscopy. Since then, microscopy techniques have become amazingly sophisticated and are constantly changing to allow researchers to push the limits of resolution and to ask new questions about how life works. We are happy to present four Perspective articles from leaders in the community, discussing the present and future applications of cutting-edge microscopy techniques to questions in cell and developmental biology. We begin with an article by Jim Spudich, who shared this year’s Lasker Award for his work on cytoskeletal motors, proposing new ways to combine the use of optical traps and single-molecule fluorescence techniques as a means to shed light on how molecular motors work together inside the cell. Next, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz surveys a variety of superresolution strategies (including several variants of PALM and STORM) and discusses how they have been used to answer questions in cell biology. A companion piece from Bo Huang highlights some of the important logistical and analytical hurdles involved in applying these techniques, especially during the study of embryonic development. Last, but certainly not least, Joachim Wittbrodt explores several exciting uses of light-sheet microscopy, with a special focus on time-lapse in toto imaging of development and the implications that it has for our understanding of cell signaling, cell behavior, and gene expression dynamics. We are pleased to present this collection of reviews in time for the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology, as this meeting is a great forum for researchers from many disciplines, all of which rely on microscopy in one way or the other. We hope that you will enjoy reading the articles, be inspired, and see for yourselves how sophisticated microscopy techniques can be applied to your favorite problem in biology. On behalf of all the editors at Developmental Cell.