Us researchers develop new microscopic observation technique ——— 'DNA microscopy'

U.S. researchers have developed a new microscopic observation technique, "DNA microscopy," that can reveal the inner picture of cells at the genomic level, which is important for biological and medical research.
the Howard-Hughes Institute of Medicine in the United States, said in a press release, "DNA microscopy" is a new cell visualization technology, developed by the agency and the Broad Institute, using chemical methods to obtain information inside the cell, the image of the cell's biological molecules in both the gene sequence and relative position of the situation.
different cells of an organism invoke different instructions from the genome to produce the corresponding biomolecules that enable the cell to perform its own tasks.
the distribution of these biomolecules within cells is as important as their genetic sequences, but current observations can only reflect one aspect.
if the cell is compared to a container with a ball of different colors, then the optical microscope, electron microscope, etc. are black and white, and "DNA microscopy" can obtain both the gene sequence and relative position of the biological molecules in the cell information, equivalent to taking a color photo inside the container.
the researchers used the "molecular bar code" technique developed by the previous generation to obtain the specific spatial distribution of biomolecules by inserting information that indirectly reflects the position of the biological molecule into the DNA of the cell sample, then sequencing the samples and then processing the relevant information with specialized algorithms.
the paper is published in the new issue of the American journal Cell.
a new generation of medical microscopy and analysis academic seminars held in Suzhou to open up clinical needs, enterprise applications and industrial transformation links, to attract more outstanding projects to settle in Suzhou High-tech Zone. On the morning of April 13,
, a new generation of medical microscopy observation and analysis symposium organized by Jiangsu Province's Strategic Alliance for Technological Innovation in the Medical Device Industry and the Alliance for Collaborative Innovation of Medical Device Industry in Sunan Self-Creation Zone were held in Suzhou High-tech District.
medical device industry is one of the three emerging industries developed vigorously in Suzhou High-tech Zone.
in recent years, as the core area of the national independent innovation demonstration zone in Sunan, the high-tech zone has gathered the Chinese Academy of Sciences Medical Institute, Southeast University Medical Device Research Institute and other hundreds of large institutions, so that the achievements of innovation is becoming increasingly prominent.
the seminar strengthened the interaction between the industry, but also for enterprises to build a platform for scientific and technological cooperation and exchange, so that each other fully docking with domestic and foreign high-quality innovation resources, expanding the impact of the development of the medical device industry in Suzhou.
through academic discussion, advanced computational optical microimaging, super-resolution imaging, scanning probe technology and other emerging cross-technology achievements integrated into the development direction of microanalysis instruments, for the vast number of medical workers to provide pathology, inspection research and clinical solutions, to achieve the highest resolution nano-scale imaging and the most complete real-time dynamic analysis of living cells, cell mechanics measurement, single-molecule detection research, cell fine structure research, microbiology research and other applications, and then break the monopoly of foreign technology.
meeting, five Chinese Academy of Engineering academicians attended the meeting, and with 150 domestic industry experts, business representatives and other joint discussion of a new generation of microimaging and other medical device development.
about microscopy: Microscopy is a technique for observing the morphological structure and properties of tiny objects that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye using optical systems or electronic optical system equipment.
the development of historical lysopian optical microscopes is a magnifying glass with a high magnifier.
records, before 1610 Italian physicist Galileo made a double microscope to observe the insect's double eye.
this is a microscope that has been equipped with eyepieces, objective lenses and barrels and is attached to the bracket.
Dutchman A. van Levenhuck produced no less than 247 microscopes throughout his life, observing many bacteria, protozoa and moving and plant tissues, and was the first person to use a microscope for scientific observation.
microscope has been improved many by the 18th century, the application is more common, has been produced as a commodity.
1872-1873, the German physicist and mathematician E. Abe proposed the theory of optical microscope, from which the production of the lens can be carried out according to pre-scientific calculations.
at the same time, the German chemist O. Schott successfully developed high-quality optical glass for the production of lenses.
they worked with German microscope maker Carl Zeiss to establish the ZEISS Optical Instrument Factory, which produced a modern optical microscope in 1886 that produced a double-color-cancelling oil mirror, reaching the resolution limitof the optical microscope.
developed many types of optical microscopes from the late 19th century to the 1960s, such as polarizing microscopes, dark field microscopes, differential microscopes, interferometry microscopes, and fluorescence microscopes.
in addition, there are many special device microscopes, such as inverted microscopes that are particularly useful in cell culture.
developed a similar focus scanning laser microscope in the late 1980s, combined with image processing, can directly observe the stereoscopic map of living cells, is a major advance in optical microscopy.
the rapid development of biology, especially cytology, has been promoted by the development of microscience sphonyths in the 18th to 19th centuries.
for example, the post-19th century cytographists' research on fertilization, the structure and behavior of chromosomes has made great achievements in the continuous improvement of microscopy, which in turn has laid the foundation for the establishment and development of cytogenetics.
In addition, microscopy has become a major research tool in the development of cytology, histology, embryology, plant anatomy, microbiology, paleontology and spore. the invention of
electron microscope has led to the development of microscopic phenomena in biology from microscopic to supermicrosized.
the study of ultra-microstructure combined with the study of biochemistry, so that the morphological description-based cytology developed into cell biology for the study of the basic laws of cell life activity.
since the 1970s, due to the continuous improvement of electron microscope resolution and the application of the combination of electronic computers, many molecular biology phenomena, such as DNA transcription, DNA molecular hybridization and other phenomena in biochemistry with isotope technology can be confirmed, can also be intuitively confirmed in electronic images, many biological macromolecules structure and function can also be understood from the analysis of electronic images.
in short, biological studies using microscopy can reflect three different levels of information, such as cell level, ultra-microstructure level, and even molecular level.
each of the three are characteristic, but at the same time are interrelated and complementary.
in medical diagnosis, microscopy technology has been used as a routine method of examination, such as blood, parasite eggs, pathogens and so on.
the use of microscopy for pathology research has developed into a specialized discipline - cytopathology, which is particularly important in the diagnosis of cancer.
diagnosis of certain genetic diseases, it is possible to use microscopic technology for the examination of chromosomal variation. in addition,
, in health and epidemic prevention, environmental protection, pest control, quarantine, Chinese herbal medicine identification, oil prospecting and formation identification, wood identification, fiber quality verification, forensics, archaeology, mineralogy and other industrial materials and industrial products and industrial product quality inspection, etc. have a wide range of applications.
Source: Xinhua News Agency.