Embryogenesis in 4D: a developmental atlas for genes and cells

New imaging technology overcomes 2D limitations and simultaneously captures gene activity of 500 genes in whole tissues

16-Mar-2026 - How does a tiny cluster of cells become an embryo with a head, trunk, and tail? And how do thousands of genes coordinate this development? A new imaging method makes it possible to visualize the activity of thousands of genes simultaneously throughout the entire zebrafish embryo. Using this ...

Microfluidics makes super-resolution microscopy reproducible and user-friendly

International research team led by Göttingen University design versatile imaging system

05-Mar-2026 - Understanding how cells are organized and how their molecular components interact in a coordinated and cooperative manner is a central goal of modern life sciences. To answer these questions, researchers need to observe many structures inside the same cell at once and map how they are arranged ...

An advanced imaging technique detects cancer with unprecedented precision

New endoscopy technology enables early detection of esophageal cancer

07-Aug-2025 - Researchers from Helmholtz Munich, the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and the Medical University of Vienna have developed an advanced imaging technique called "O2E" that allows clinics to detect cancerous lesions in the esophagus with unprecedented precision. Published in Nature Biomedical ...

Investigating kinase activity in living cells: Scientists build molecular recording tool

Overcoming limitations of optical imaging

14-Jul-2025 - The ability of protein kinases to transfer a phosphate group to target proteins plays an important role in many cellular processes. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg have now developed a novel molecular tool that can monitor these kinase activities both ...

New Microscope Brings Glowing Cells into Focus

A New Tool for Studying Life in Motion

02-Jun-2025 - Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new microscope that significantly improves how bioluminescent signals in living cells can be observed. The system, known as QIScope, is built around a highly sensitive camera technology capable of detecting ...

Scientists develop cost-efficient medical imaging method

Low-field magnetic resonance imaging combined with hyperpolarization

09-Jul-2024 - Max Planck scientists presented a low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner for the development of novel MRI methods at the 73rd Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau. As part of an associated scientific event, two researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in ...

MXenes for energy storage: Chemical imaging more than just surface deep

19-Jun-2024 - A new method in spectromicroscopy significantly improves the study of chemical reactions at the nanoscale, both on surfaces and inside layered materials. Scanning X-ray microscopy (SXM) at MAXYMUS beamline of BESSY II enables the investigation of chemical species adsorbed on the top layer ...

Spiky insight: How red blood cells deform

Holotomographic microscopy

07-Feb-2024 - Empa researchers have observed living red blood cells transforming into spiky "echinocytes" in real time when treated with high concentrations of ibuprofen using holotomographic microscopy and displayed them in 3D renderings. Blood is indeed "a juice of rarest quality." What the poet and natural ...

Speeding up diagnostics! Entangled photon pairs to help fighting cancer

Significantly reduced measurement times and enhanced reliability in cancer diagnostics

28-Feb-2023 - The recently launched QEED project aims to significantly reduce measurement time in clinical cancer diagnostics by developing a spectrally resolved imaging technique based on entangled photon pairs. FBH scientists will develop the required diode lasers and quantum light modules. The in-house ...

New X-ray imaging technique to study the transient phases of quantum materials

An international team of researchers has demonstrated for the first time the use of a new lensless ultrafast X-Ray method to image phase transitions

27-Dec-2022 - The use of light to produce transient phases in quantum materials is fast becoming a novel way to engineer new properties in them, such as the generation of superconductivity or nanoscale topological defects. However, visualizing the growth of a new phase in a solid is not easy, due in-part to ...