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Microscopic marvels: The naked microscope

Nature volume 459, pages 636–637 (2009)Cite this article

Sunney Xie's newest microscopes don't look like the latest in sophistication. Tucked away in his biochemistry lab at Harvard University, they seem to be ad hoc assemblies of lasers, objectives and electronics, surrounded by a thicket of optical equipment. "Don't worry about most of these," says graduate student Christian Freudiger, gesturing to the latest addition to Xie's microscope family. "You only need a few optics to use the microscope. The rest are just for us to play with." As he leans briefly on the table, which is designed to eliminate vibrations, it counterbalances his weight with a reproachful "shhhh".

Freudiger and the other researchers 'playing' in Xie's lab have pioneered techniques to see biological molecules in their natural state. Based on Raman spectroscopy, the methods detect compounds from the characteristic vibrations of their chemical bonds, and they free the user from having to label molecules by attaching tags such as gold particles, antibodies or fluorescent proteins. Many researchers are unwilling to abandon labels because they offer an unparalleled ability to distinguish target molecules in a cell. But for others, who want to observe a molecule 'naked', without the interference of a molecular tag, it is proving to be hugely liberating.

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References

  1. Freudiger, C. W. et al. Science 322, 1857–1861 (2008).

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  2. Ozeki, Y., Dake, F., Kajiyama, S., Fukui, K. & Itoh, K. Opt. Express 17, 3651–3658 (2009).

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Authors
  1. Heidi Ledford
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Additional information

See also page 629 and online at http://tinyurl.com/microspecial .

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Sunney Xie

Shi-You Ding

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Ledford, H. Microscopic marvels: The naked microscope. Nature 459, 636–637 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459636a

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