‘Phenomenal’ tool sequences DNA and tracks proteins — without cracking cells open
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An imaging method reveals various proteins (blue, yellow and magenta) inside the nucleus of a human connective-tissue cell. Credit: Ajay Labade, Zachary Chiang, Caroline Comenho and Jason Buenrostro
Researchers are queuing up to try a powerful microscopy technique that can simultaneously sequence an individual cell’s DNA and pinpoint the location of its proteins with high resolution — all without having to crack the cell open and extract its contents. Imaging DNA and proteins inside intact cells provides crucial information about how these molecules work together.
The method’s developers have already used it to study how ageing might alter the way that proteins in the nucleus interact with chromosomes. As the body ages, they found, changes in these nuclear proteins could suppress gene activity.
“This paper is really extraordinary,” says Ankur Sharma, a cancer biologist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, who was not involved in the study but is keen to use the approach to study cancer cells and described it as “phenomenal” on the social-media platform, X.
