To understand human physiology and the pathology of diseases, it is important to investigate the underlying biological processes on all spatial scales. These scales range from the patient to organs, to tissues within an organ, to individual cells within the tissue, to molecular machines within the cells, down to the atomic level. The detailed knowledge of macromolecular interactions within and in between cells in a given tissue, combined with an integrated view of an organism, significantly increases the chances for finding new cures.

Jesse V. Jokerst, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of NanoEngineering
Affiliate Faculty, Materials Science Program
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Radiology
University of California, San Diego

A convergence of scientific breakthroughs in chemistry, optics, and engineering in the early 1800s resulted in a miraculous new way to understand life—the light microscope. Microscopic studies of a wide range of samples by Johannes Müller and his protégés Matthias Schlieden, Theodor Schwann, and Rudolf Virchow resulted in a scientific epiphany and one of the most profound and useful revelations in history: Cells are the building blocks of all living organisms.

Implementation of precision health has the potential to revolutionize the current paradigm of modern medicine, which is still predominantly focused on disease treatment.

Substance use disorders and neuropsychiatric conditions are brain diseases characterized by morphological and functional adaptations in neurons and neural circuits. Traditionally, neuroscientists use conventional confocal or electron microscopy to characterize how abused substances remodel sites of synaptic communication. However, confocal microscopy is hindered by diffraction limits of light waves and cannot resolve structures below a spatial resolution of about 250 nm.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a common tool used to study the structure and function of bodily tissues in health and disease. Although MRI has undergone decades of technological advances and improvements, it still is fundamentally limited by low signal sensitivity.^1,2 The technique of hyperpolarization may be one important approach to overcoming this limitation by temporarily enhancing the magnetization of polarizable atomic nuclei.

Many of the scientific discoveries require an understanding of specialized biological processes at the cellular level. Scientists rely on the use of light microscopes to visualize cells and other organisms invisible to the human eye. To segregate cell populations from a heterogenous mixture and to quantitatively analyze cells from a variety of biological specimens, many scientists employ flow cytometry.

Although X-ray crystallography was invented more than 100 years ago, it is still one of the most powerful techniques used to determine the three-dimensional (3D) structure of proteins. Technological advances during the last 10 years, such as the development of pixel array detectors (PADs), have improved the speed and quality of data collection, which in turn allows for the more accurate determination of 3D crystal structures. Knowing the 3D structure of a protein provides scientists with important information that can allow them to determine the function and biology of the molecule.

Since the 1970s, the field of medicine has relied on the imaging technique of X-ray computed tomography (CT) to visualize soft tissues of the body, bone structures, and to assist in the diagnosis of a myriad of diseases.^1,2 A CT scanner creates a beam of X-rays from an X-ray source aimed at a patient and recognized by rows of detectors, producing multiple images (“slices”) that are processed by the machine’s computer, generating cross-sectional images.³ Beyond diagnostic purposes, this technology is used to select suitable treatment options for patients.