Researchers Capture "Natural Killer" White Blood Cells in Action in Highest Resolution Ever
Natural Killer Cell Imperial College London Researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford have pioneered a new technique to see exactly how our body's "natural killer" white blood cells actually do their dirty work. It's the first time we've ever been able to see how this element of the body's natural defenses actually works. brightcove.createExperiences(); There are myriad difficulties in trying to observe this kind of event. For one thing, the cells are incredibly small, and execute their, well, executions (that's an apt description, as you'll see) very, very quickly. Then there's the problem that the cells are three-dimensional (of course), while the high-speed microscopes used for this are only capable of seeing the horizontal plane. (3-D cameras are not, at the moment, quick enough to work for this.) Previously, researchers would have to painstakingly capture many 2-D images, then stack them on top of each other--not very efficient,...