Melissa Chimento has seen the face of the enemy, and that enemy
looks like—a finger. Chimento, a UAB alumna, is an electron
microscopist in UAB’s High Resolution Imaging Facility (HRIF), a
technology-packed lab in the Shelby Biomedical Research Building
that offers researchers the chance to see their work up close
and personal, even when the object of their attention is
thousands of times smaller than a human hair. A male (right) and
female fruit fly are shown at more than 75 times their size by
using laser confocal microscopy. To view this and other images
from the HRIF, view the slideshow here. At the controls of an
FEI Tecnai T12 TEM, Chimento has captured images of anthrax,
adenoviruses, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the lethal bug
that causes tuberculosis—looking remarkably fingerlike (and
quite nonthreatening) in its native environment. Each year,
hundreds of researchers pay a visit to the HRIF, says Kent
Keyser, Ph.D., who directs the facility and UAB’s Vision Science
Research Center. Vision research