( off the equipment and set up shop in t...)New light microscope sharpens scientists' focus

There, in just two months, they built a prototype of the instrument. They also understood, however, that the biology and sample preparation issues would loom just as large as the instrumentation ones. So they contacted Davidson at FSU and Lippincott-Schwartz and Patterson at NICHD. Soon, all three groups were in close cooperation to bring the concept to reality.

By October 2005, the prototype was ready for testing, thanks in part to equipment resources marshaled by the NICHD. Additional financial resources supplied by HHMI ensured that the work would be well funded in the future since Betzig, at almost the same time, accepted a position as a group leader at Janelia Farm.

Betzig exemplified the type of venturesome, creative scientist sought by Janelia Farm, but since the campus was still under construction, it could not yet provide the lab space and collaborative environment he and Hess needed. They therefore moved their prototype to a small space in Lippincott-Schwartz's lab at the NIH. While the cramped quarters and frequent hotel stays were challenging, Hess and Betzig said that being near their collaborators ?who provided the biological expertise that they lacked ?was invaluable as they developed the microscope.

The basic concepts behind their new technique are simple: The researchers label the molecules they want to study with a photoactivatable probe, and then expose those molecules to a small amount of violet light. The light activates fluorescence in a small percentage of molecules, and the microscope captures an image of those that are turned on until they bleach. The process is repeated approximately 10,000 times, with each repetition capturing the position of a different subset of molecules.

Because the number of molecules captured in each image is small, they are far enough apart to see each molecule indivi
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Source:Howard Hughes Medical Institute