The Living Lab: Navigating into cells By Jennie Bragg How do
viruses attach to cells? How do proteins interact and mediate
infection? How do molecular machines organize themselves in
healthy cells? How do they differ in diseased cells? These are
the types of questions National Institutes of Health researchers
ask in the recently established Living Lab for Structural
Biology, questions they strive to answer through the most
sophisticated of imaging techniques. To see one of the lab's
videos based on its imaging, click here. The Living Lab is an
innovative partnership between NIH and FEI, an Oregon-based
instrumentation company that manufactures advanced microscopes.
FEI brings to the table invaluable assistance in developing and
customizing electron microscopes for biological applications.
Using that cutting edge technology, scientists in the Living
Lab, unencumbered by any pressure to patent or otherwise protect
discoveries for commercial purposes, can proceed purely driven
by scientific and biomedical puzzle