To peer inside a living cell
Quantum mechanics could help build ultra-high-resolution electron microscopes that won't destroy living cells, according to MIT electrical engineers.
Electron microscopes are the most powerful type of microscope, capable of distinguishing even individual atoms. However, these microscopes cannot be used to image living cells because the electrons destroy the samples.Now, MIT assistant professor Mehmet Fatih Yanik and his student, William Putnam, propose a new scheme that can overcome this limitation by using a quantum mechanical measurement technique that allows electrons to sense objects remotely. Damage would be avoided because the electrons would never actually hit the imaged objects.
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High-Throughput Neurotechnology Group
ABOUT THE GROUP
The RLE High-Throughput Neurotechnology Group is working towards development and applications of technologies for studying cellular processes. Nerve regeneration and degeneration is being studied by femtosecond laser nano-surgery and multi-photon imaging as well as large scale screening techniques. Other problems being investigated include single molecule dynamics in microfluidic devices, and sub-diffraction limit imaging in live cells. The group is also investigating photonic nano-structures for bio-sensing, nano-manipulation and bio-spectroscopy purposes.
clipped from www.rle.mit.edu
clipped from www.rle.mit.edu"Noninvasive electron microscope with interaction-free quantum measurements", B. Putnam, M. F. Yanik, Phys. Rev. - Rapid Communications.
clipped from www.rle.mit.edu
Mehmet F. Yanik
Robert J. Shillman Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
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Sources:
- To peer inside a living cell
- Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT
- RLE :: High-Throughput Neurotechnology Group
- Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT
