Biological Electron Microscopy

I am excited to share our first Pt replica EM images. It took us a little while, but now we have establish the unroofing, drying and Pt coating workflow 🎉 Great work by our postdoc Luis Wong Dilworth! The image below shows the cytosolic membrane leaflet of a fibroblast 👇

For the first time in plants, we used APEX-based electron microscopy to map the precise localization of ATG8 at the vacuolar membrane after stress! 🚀

Pushing the boundaries of plant cell biology—one EM image at a time. ⚡👀

#PlantScience #ElectronMicroscopy #Autophagy #Vacuole #NaturePlants

Zooming in on the ultimate connection! 🔬 💥Feast your eyes on this stunning electron microscopy image of a neuromuscular junction #EMFriday #ElectronMicroscopy

#Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy, #CLEM, is a modern #method combining light and #electronmicroscopy data. Although it is considered “new”, it was already used in the early 1960s, for instance to study the #ultrastructure of mitotic cells in this beautiful example: doi.org/10.1083/jcb....

electron microscope image of a section through a foetal aorta filled with red blood cells

I fear there is deep truth here.

Beyond misalignment of science in the news and in schools Almost 40 years ago, the American astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator, Carl Sagan, reflected on the role of mass media in science communication. “How much science and technology ...

“One of the challenges in science journalism is the oversimplification of research findings to attract attention. Headlines such as “scientists find cure for cancer” or “ozone layer is healing” are designed to attract readers’ attention but often misrepresent the complexity of scientific research.”

APEX-based proximity labeling in Plasmodium identifies a membrane protein with dual functions during mosquito infection Author summary Malaria parasites are transmitted by and to mosquitoes. Blocking either of these transmission steps would stop the parasite life cycle. Hence, identification of new proteins that are es...

I always wanted to name a protein after a Greek goddess or nymph and here we go: journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
Happy holidays everyone

electron microscope image of a coriander leaf

An electron microscopy image of a motor nerve cell (ventral horn of rabbit spinal cord; multipolar). It shows a cell body with a large nucleus. An axo-somatic synapse on that cell body is labeled, as are 2 dendrites. Surrounding the nerve cell are other, labeled features: glial cell nuclei, capillaries.

Screenshot of text: 49 Motor nerve cell - Ventral Horn of Rabbit Spinal Cord, Multipolar Motor Neuron Cell Body View Virtual EM Slide Motor Neuron Cell Body. In this electron micrograph, note some of the features you saw in ventral horn motor neurons with the light microscope, such as the large, pale nucleus, prominent nucleolus, Nissl bodies, dendrites and axon. Adjacent to the neuron, note myelinated axons of various sizes and also that there are no spaces between cell processes. All spaces are occupied either by the processes of neurons or glia or by capillaries (these capillaries are somewhat swollen here because the tissue was fixed by perfusion).

Images and instruction span from the area level down to the subcellular. Check out this rabbit motor neuron! Again, the text walks students through what they should be learning and appreciating from the image.
3/n

Microscopic image of "sheets" of polymer (plastic) arranged side-by-side

Finding my bearings here on BlueSky. Figuring on dropping more cool "sciencey" stuff on here. I have done quite a bit of electron microscopy... nothing scientifically earth shattering, but I found so many of the images so darned pretty so I'm going to start posting ones I like from time to time.

Just published. Check the astonishing diversity of bacteria that can not only form intracellular nanomagnets but also amorphous calcium carbonates that litterally fill the cells. + beautiful EM and cryo-X-ray microscopy images + genomes; follow the link academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Scanning electron microscopy images from the middle ear of mice showing cilia

Gene discovery sheds light on ‘glue ear’ in people with Down syndrome, paving the way for future targeted therapies.
https://buff.ly/4h6P8eF

Still our favorite #review! Unfortunately, as relevant today as when it was published, it is an excellent illustration of the #problems arising from the neglect of #ultrastructure and #electronmicroscopy in #cell-biology and the over-reliance on #fluorescence #microscopy.

doi.org/10.1016/0962...

Extensive PFAS accumulation by human gut bacteria Per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) – the so-called ‘forever chemicals’ – are a major cause of environmental and health concern due to their toxicity and long-term persistence[1][1],[2][2]. Yet...

Tanmay now also combining electronmicroscopy with metabolic imaging, see their preprint with @kiranrpatil.bsky.social @lisamaierlab.bsky.social and colleagues
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#MultiBac2025

Nonvesicular lipid transfer drives myelin growth in the central nervous system - Nature Communications To generate myelin, oligodendrocytes must greatly expand their membrane. Here, the authors show that oligodendroglial endoplasmic reticulum-myelin contact sites and nonvesicular glycolipid transport a...

Nonvesicular lipid transfer is key for myelin growth! Oligodendrocytes' ER enriches myelin development. Huge lipid synthesis for myelin biogenesis—volume electron microscopy shows it all! PMID:39528474, Nat Commun 2024 @NatureComms doi.org/10.1038/s414...

a black and white electron microscopy image of a bryozoan with lots of pores and round, granular ovicells

Potential new invasive species of #bryozoa for Norway alert!

On their way to our #NorDigBryo workshop in Sletvik in October, the people from Bergen did some sampling in some harbors/marinas to look for invasive species and lo and behold:

I wanted to end 2024 with these cool Transmission electron microscopy images from my PhD research on raw skin tissue!
Can anyone guess what this structure might be?
#collagen #skinscience

electron microscopy picture of a microbial cell

New #ISEPpapers! The nature of ‘jaws’: a new predatory representative of #Provora and the ultrastructure of nibbling protists royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

#Protists #Microbes #Biology #TreeOfLife #Microscopy

Ending the year with micro-morphology for nerdy taxonomy #1 - Scanning Electron Microscopy never gets old @ Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai!

ps: Any Diatom people around? We're finding a lot of funky stuff..

Key Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Identifies Stress-Related Cellular Mechanism Driving the Disease CUNY scientists made a key Alzheimer's disease breakthrough, identifying a vital mechanism in the brain’s immune cells that drive dementia.

Using electron microscopy, the research team identified an accumulation of “dark microglia”, a subset of microglia associated with cellular stress and neuro-degeneration, in postmortem brain tissues from Alzheimer’s patients. The cells were present at twice the levels seen in healthy-aged people.

Today my colleague shared with me the most EXQUISITE image of a seed the size of a dust particle, collected from a rare plant called Xylanche in Nepal, and photographed using scanning electron microscopy. Wow. 📷 Renata Piwowarczyk’s work, courtesy of Herbarium LE in St. Petersburg, Russia; scan by Justyna Kasińska from Kielce University of Technology. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work with us x

Today my colleague shared with me the most EXQUISITE image of a seed the size of a dust particle, collected from a rare plant called Xylanche in Nepal, and photographed using scanning electron microscopy. Wow.

Science in the age of selfies | PNAS Science in the age of selfies

#Science in the age of #selfies

A short #opinion article that we think hits a very important point!

Albert #Einstein: “an academic career, in which a person is forced to produce #scientific writings in great amounts, creates a #danger of intellectual superficiality”

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Dynamic duo at the cell's edge: Caveolae and the actin cytoskeleton work together to sense and respond to mechanical stress. Caveolae buffer tension, while actin provides structure and force. Ultimate biomechanics team. #CellBiology #Mechanotransduction

Instead of listing my publications, as the year draws to an end, I want to shine the spotlight on the commonplace assumption that productivity must always increase. Good research is disruptive and thinking time is central to high quality scholarship and necessary for disruptive research.

Featured image with the Hughes lab - FocalPlane Featured image with the Hughes lab - News

Our final ‘Featured image’ of 2024 is this beautiful immuno-scanning electron micrograph of a primary cilium, acquired by Sanja Sviben. Check out the post to learn more about the image and the research in the Hughes lab: focalplane.biologists.com/2024/12/20/f...

Is it almost Christmas? Yes!
Is that a reason to stop the @eurobioimaging.bsky.social #VirtualPub? No!

We're closing the year with a big one - a @volumeem1.bsky.social special session from one of our Nodes featuring all their vEM imaging and analysis techniques.

How dangerous is sodium cacodylate? Circumstantial evidence suggests that sodium cacodylate may be a far greater health hazard than has been generally assumed. Until further information is available, electron microscopists should see t...

The toxic, #arsenic -containing #Cacodylate buffer is still used in many #electronmicroscopy labs today. Although it is a good buffer, it is no longer needed today as there are better and safer alternatives that perform just as well - #PHEM buffer (Schliwa, 1981) for example.
doi.org/10.1111/j.13...

SEM image of a rhizarian testate amoeba (euglyphid) showing its glass scales.

Not a fish or a dragon scale, but a single cell of a #protistsonsky. This rhizarian testate amoeba creates perfect tiny glass scales to build it's shell. From a peat bog. #protistaday.

It's truly surprising that the #tokuyasu method is so underutilized in #fluorescence #microscopy! It eliminates the need for permeabilisation and increases Z resolution to 50nm on any microscope. It is also the method used in the Nobel Prize-winning work on #super-resolution.
doi.org/10.1177/0022...