Wednesday, 12 March 2008

The inner workings of a (crowded) cell

A very nice video which explains the inner workings of a cell made at Harvard University.


However a typical cellular protein concentration is 400 mg/ml (400 g/L) so the cell should be much more crowded and less neat, in my view. Have a look at this reconstruction of the cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell (Dictyostelium discoideum, from Medalia et al, 2002).).



It was obtained from cryo-electron tomography, where pictures taken at various angles are reconstructed to a 3D image. There is no staining, fixation or dehydration of the sample. For more on macromolecular crowding see this report.

1 comment:

James Schneider said...

An even cooler video here.
http://schneiderhome.blogspot.com/2008/03/innovation-better-than-financial-re.html

Could a man engage in science, as yourself, look into the realities of this technology and report back?