Powerful microscope captures first image of “haystack” nanoscaffold that promotes cell movement
Sanford Burnham PrebysUsing one of the most powerful microscopes in the world, scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) have identified a dense, dynamic and disorganized actin filament nanoscaffold—resembling a haystack—that is induced in response to a molecular signal. This is the first time researchers have directly visualized, at the molecular level, a structure that is triggered in response to a cellular signal—a key finding that expands our understanding of how cells move. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).