Visualising cell structures in three dimensions in mere minutes

Viral pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus change the interior structure of the cells they infect. These changes occur at the level of individual cell components—the organelles—and can provide information on how viral diseases develop. Extremely powerful imaging techniques are needed to visualize them, but such methods are very data- and time-intensive. A German-American research team under the direction of Dr. Venera Weinhardt at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University recently optimized a special X-ray process—known as soft X-ray tomography—to deliver high-resolution three-dimensional images of entire cells and their molecular structure in just a few minutes.

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