Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center (MBIC) have developed new "fluorogen activating proteins" (FAPs) that will become a key component of novel molecular biosensor technology being created at Carnegie Mellon. The FAPs, which can be used to monitor biological activities of individual proteins and other biomolecules within living cells in real time, are described in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology.

Bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered a technique that for the first time enables the detection of biomolecules' dynamic reactions in a single living cell.

While fluorescence has long been used to tag biological molecules, a new technology developed at Yale allows researchers to use tiny fluorescent probes to rapidly detect and identify protein interactions within living cells while avoiding the biological disruption of existing methods, according to a report in Nature Chemical Biology.

One day soon, laboratories may grow synthetically engineered tissues such as muscle or cartilage needed for transplants. In a major step forward, Cornell engineers describe in the journal Nature Materials a microvascular system they have developed that can nourish growing tissues.

Scientists in Manchester are working to change the social habits of living cells – an innovation that could bring about cleaner and greener fuel and help fight diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Living cells are highly complex synthetic machines: Numerous multistep reactions run simultaneously side by side and with unbelievable efficiency and specificity. For these mainly enzymatic reactions to work so well collectively, nature makes use of a variety of concepts.

Clemson University chemists have developed a method to dramatically improve the longevity of fluorescent nanoparticles that may someday help researchers track the motion of a single molecule as it travels through a living cell.

A new imaging technique developed at MIT has allowed scientists to create the first 3D images of a living cell, using a method similar to the X-ray CT scans doctors use to see inside the body.

Researchers have made a breakthrough by detecting the electrical equivalent of a living cell's last gasp. The work takes them a step closer to both seeing the 'heartbeat' of a living cell and a new way to test drugs.