Feature

Singled Out

How to study cells, one by one

Fly over any baseball stadium when the home-team batter slams a double in the gap with two men on base, and you’ll see a crowd of fans rising in unison, arms waving wildly in the air. You’d think you were viewing typical baseball fan behavior.

Despite being kept in the same lab conditions, these human colon cells make differing amounts of the protein beta-catenin (green) in their nuclei (blue). ~~ Curtis Thorne and Chonlarat (“Pearl”) Wichaidit

SPOTTING SIBLINGS | By combining fluorescent markers and cell-imaging techniques, researchers were able to divide a population of cloned cells into several subpopulations (four shown in chart). Members of each subpopulation showed similar patterns of fluorescence (images). ~~ M.D. Slack et al/PNAS 2008, adapted by Janel Kiley