Researchers from DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology) have recently developed a new method of maintaining living, wet cells in a vacuum, which allows these cells to be studied and imaged. This allows complex diseases such as cancers and Alzheimer’s to be studied more successfully.

Professor Dae Won Moon of DGIST explains how modern methods to introduce these cells into vacuums involve freezing or drying them, which deteriorate the cells’ original composition. However, by applying nanoimaging techniques to living cells without any chemical or physical treatments, previously impossible to attain information is available.

The method involves “placing wet cells on a collagen-coated wet substrate with microholes, which in turn is on top of a cell culture medium reservoir” After which, the cells are coated in graphene, to protect the cells from deccation.

In it’s entirety, this is an up and coming method of studying complex diseases which has great potential for nanoimaging sciences in the future.

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