Beautiful Structure

Dental plaque biofilms imaged with exquisite detail

Go to the profile of Michael Cox
Michael Cox
Jan 26, 2016
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Jessica Mark Welch, Gary Borisy and other authors have published a study in PNAS that uses CLASI FISH to study dental plaque biofilms. The technique is a variation on classic fluorescence in situ hybridisation, but uses spectral imaging, which allows many more probes by combining different fluorophores together. The result is an incredible set of images with amazing spatial and phylogenetic resolution.

The publication is available at PNAS here http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/01/20/15221... and Ed Yong has a nice write up of it on his blog http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/25...


Go to the profile of Michael Cox

Michael Cox

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Imperial College London

My background is in marine microbial ecology and biogeochemical cycles, but for the last 7 years I have been working on the microbial ecology of the human lung in health and disease. I primarily have expertise in DNA sequencing and culture based approaches.

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Go to the profile of Ben Libberton
Ben Libberton about 3 years ago

Wow, they are beautiful. I also love the names they give the the structures - very descriptive. CLASI FISH is a really powerful technique, especially as 'smarter' probes are being developed all the time that hold a lot of information in their spectra.