Method of the Year

Nature Methods

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy has revolutionized the field of molecular and cell biology, emerging as a powerful tool for scientists to view the inside of living cells at an unprecedented resolution. A flurry of advances in this field in 2008 has led Nature Methods to name the technique 'Method of the Year', with a series of special features published online this week.

It has been accepted for more than a century that light microscopy cannot resolve structures closer together than the so-called 'diffraction limit'. Beginning in the 1990s, this assumption began to be challenged, and this pioneering work has led recently to fluorescence microscopy methods that can be used to 'break' the diffraction barrier. This means that cellular structures can be imaged, in live cells, at unprecedented nanometer-scale resolution. These methods are now poised for widespread application to biology, with tremendous potential for deeper understanding at the subcellular and even the macromolecular scale.

A perspective article by Stefan Hell, one of the trailblazers of this field, outlines the principles of microscopy and the various fluorescence nanoscopy techniques that have developed from them. A Commentary by Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz discusses the promise that these methods hold and limitations that must be considered when developing the tools for widespread applications in cell biology.

In addition, the package of online features contains a short movie about the method featuring some of the developers. The video will be here from 1800 London time on Wednesday 17 December: http://www.nature.com/nmeth/video/moy2008/index.html

There will also be a selection of 'Methods to Watch' – methods about to have a profound impact on their field, such as reprogramming somatic cells to pluripotency, and developments in the field of synthetic life.

Author contacts:

Stefan W. Hell (Max Planck Institute, Göttingen, Germany) Tel: +49 551 201 2500; E-mail: shell@gwdg.de

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz (NICHD, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) Tel: +1 301 402 1009; E-mail: jlippin@helix.nih.gov

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Natalie de Souza (Nature Methods, New York) Tel: +1 212 726-9652; E-mail: n.desouza@natureny.com

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