¹Cell Biology and Cell Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany

Correspondence: Dr V Starkuviene, Cell Biology and Cell Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. E-mail: starkuvi@embl.de

Received 12 December 2006; Revised 19 February 2007; Accepted 19 March 2007; Published online 2 July 2007.

Abstract

Fluorescence microscopy is a powerful method to study protein function in its natural habitat, the living cell. With the availability of the green fluorescent protein and its spectral variants, almost any gene of interest can be fluorescently labelled in living cells opening the possibility to study protein localization, dynamics and interactions. The emergence of automated cellular systems allows rapid visualization of large groups of cells and phenotypic analysis in a quantitative manner. Here, we discuss recent advances in high-content high-throughput microscopy and its potential application to several steps of the drug discovery process.