title: Moving toward the light: using new technology to answer old questions.
abstract: Fluorescence microscopy has become a principle methodology in the field of developmental biology. Recent technological advances have led to the design of high-speed and high-resolution confocal and multiphoton microscopes that enable researchers to obtain three- and four-dimensional information in living cells and whole embryos. Paralleling this progress, the development of stable and bright vital fluorescent probes has revolutionized the ability to track individual cells in vitro and in vivo and to visualize intercellular and subcellular molecular interactions in real time. Combining imaging modalities and labeling techniques that are increasingly unobtrusive to cell and whole animal function, our understanding of how proteins interact, tissues take form, and organs synchronize to create a functioning animal is reaching a whole new level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77071, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lucitti
authors.forename: Mary E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Dickinson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015509:Developmental Biology / Q000639:trends*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D047108:Embryonic Development; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008164:Luminescent Proteins