Articles in 2014

Recent improvements in tissue 'clearing' techniques permit their application to a variety of tissues and their combination with immunohistochemistry.

Bacterial populations get outfitted with stable analog genetic memory.

Proximity-specific ribosome profiling reveals the exquisite specificity of translation at the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrial outer membrane.

Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy can image living samples in three dimensions with relatively low phototoxicity and at high speed.

Developments in electrical and optical recording technology are scaling up the size of neuronal populations that can be monitored simultaneously. Light-sheet imaging is rapidly gaining traction as a method for optically interrogating activity in large networks and presents both opportunities and challenges for understanding circuit function.

Two high-throughput single-molecule force spectroscopy platforms expand the reach of this technology for biomechanical molecular phenotyping.

In light sheet–based fluorescence microscopy (LSFM), optical sectioning in the excitation process minimizes fluorophore bleaching and phototoxic effects. Because biological specimens survive long-term three-dimensional imaging at high spatiotemporal resolution, LSFM has become the tool of choice in developmental biology.

Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy techniques are enabling researchers to achieve dynamic, long-term imaging and three-dimensional reconstruction of specimens ranging from single cells to whole embryos.

Moving and sorting cells with sound are a few of the possible applications for this no-contact technique.

Ten years of development in light-sheet microscopy have led to spectacular demonstrations of its capabilities. The technology is ready to assist biologists in tackling scientific problems, but are biologists ready for it? Here we discuss the interdisciplinary challenges light-sheet microscopy presents for biologists and highlight available resources.

The prix fixe strategy and software uses cofunction networks to identify causal genes among candidate genes in disease-associated loci from genome-wide association studies.

Here, the authors present an approach for the simultaneous optogenetic manipulation and recording of neural activity at cellular resolution using two-photon microscopy and apply their strategy in the mouse barrel cortex.

An improved analysis approach for single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD)-based macromolecular X-ray structure determination expands the applicability of this phasing method for macromolecules with weak anomalous signals.

A native-SAD (single-wavelength anomalous diffraction) data collection strategy enables phasing using anomalous signal from a single native crystal, facilitating straightforward macromolecular X-ray structure determination.

Patterning on topography printing allows nano- to microscale patterning of extracellular matrix proteins onto topologically complex surfaces.

Snap-tag reporter mice allow flexible yet efficient targeting of chemical indicators to genetically labeled cells in vivo. With this strategy, cells can either be labeled fluorescently or ablated using the same reporter.

A DNA nanoswitch platform enables inexpensive kinetic and thermodynamic analysis of a range of biomolecular interactions using a simple gel electrophoresis readout.

QTI-seq (quantitative translation initiation sequencing) maps the position of the start codon and thus allows the determination of initiation efficiency in response to various stimuli, such as starvation, in cell culture and in vivo.

Targeted DNase Hi-C uses DNase I instead of restriction enzymes for chromatin fragmentation and improves the resolution of chromatin interaction maps.