Traditional imaging techniques based on light microscopy do not offer sufficient resolution to see how cellular molecules and small structures interact in actual life, and powerful techniques such as X-ray crystallography can only define the structure of an individual molecule or simple molecular interactions. Electron tomography and related methods for 3D electron microscopy can fill this imaging gap and reveal fine subcellular structures or virus-host interactions in great detail. The Subramaniam lab has been pioneering advances in 3D electron microscopy, and is applying the emerging technologies to understanding not only virus-host interactions, but also visualizing such things as structures inside the cell that distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.

For more information on this work and the Subramaniam laboratory's work in high resolution electron microscopy, go to http://hrem.nci.nih.gov.


For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI website at http://www.cancer.gov, or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Reference: Sougrat R, Bartesaghi A, Lifson JD, Bennett AD, Bess J, Zabransky DJ, Subramaniam S. Electron tomography of the contact between T-cells and SIV/HIV-1: Implications for viral entry. PLoS Pathogens. May 4, 2007.

Full caption:
Contact of HIV-1 with T-cells. Electron tomographic analysis reveals the architecture of the virus-cell contact region which forms an "entry claw." Scale bar is 100 nanometers wide.

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