• Question: What are the microscopes called, the ones that you use to see how cells behave?

    Asked by EQPerry to Cristina on 8 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Cristina Villa del Campo

      Cristina Villa del Campo answered on 8 Nov 2015:

      Hi,

      Thanks for your question! The microscopes I use are fluorescence microscopes, which means that I can see fluorescent-labelled cells by using them.

      Microscopes have come a long way since they were invented. The ones we use still rely on lenses and glasses to magnify the cells but now we can label different parts of the cells in different “colours” so we can see the membrane, nucleus (labeling the DNA) or whatever cell structure that we want.

      We use molecules that we got from fluorescent jellyfish to do that and initially we just had green colour but now the chemists have made them in blue, orange, yellow, cyan, red…

      We can see if the cells are quiet or if they move when we culture them.
      I think they are pretty cool.

Comments