Dr. Shahar Alon Featured in “Nature”

An article published in this month’s Nature journal takes an in-depth look at expansion microscopy (ExM), an imaging technique that enables researchers to detect nanoscale cellular structures by enlarging them using polymeric systems. The technique, demonstrated by Ed Boyden and his peers at MIT, revolutionized the world of biological imaging by allowing researchers to view cellular structures at a nanometric scale using standard fluorescent microscopes. Over the past decade, more than 700 published papers described research utilizing ExM to sample tissues at up to 100 times their actual size, distinguishing fine details that were otherwise invisible due to the limitations of refraction. Even though ExM does not support live cell imaging and lacks the atomic precision of the most advanced technologies, the latest advance achieved a resolution of nearly one nanometer, significantly enhancing its usability in biological research.

ExM became popular in various research fields, from the study of malaria parasites to mapping the molecular architecture of different organs. Over the years, ExM birthed other variants such as ultrastructural expansion microscopy (U-ExM) and one-nanometer microscopy that produces higher resolution and even more detailed structural details. The vast adoption of ExM protocols and practical workshops has made advanced imaging more accessible to researchers, revealing previously unseen biological structures and promoting our understanding of cellular biology.

One of the interviewees is Dr. Shahar Alon, a former postdoc in Boyden’s lab. Dr. Alon of Bar-Ilan’s Faculty of Engineering has spearheaded the development of expansion sequencing technology which utilizes microscopic expansion to sequence RNA molecules inside cancer tissues and reveals how gene activity patterns shift when immune cells and tumor cells meet. “We can see the molecular content of each [cell type] and how they influence one another,” says Dr. Alon.

Click here for the full article in Nature.com