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The secret lives of cells — as never seen before

Cutting-edge microscopy techniques are allowing researchers to spy on the innards of cells in all their crowded glory.
  1. Diana Kwon

    1. Diana Kwon is a freelance science journalist based in Berlin.

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Cryo-electron tomography showing proteasomes clustered at the at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane

Cryo-electron tomography and related techniques can showcase the insides of cells in striking detail. Credit: S. Albert et al./PNAS (CC BY 4.0)

For a few weeks in 2017, Wanda Kukulski found herself binge-watching an unusual kind of film: videos of the insides of cells. They were made using a technique called cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) that allows researchers to view the proteins in cells at high resolution. In these videos, she could see all kinds of striking things, such as the inner workings of cells and the compartments inside them, in unprecedented detail. “I was so overwhelmed by the beauty and the complexity that in the evenings I would just watch them like I would watch a documentary,” recalls Kukulski, a biochemist at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

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Nature 598, 558-560 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02904-w

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