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Researchers have identified the driving force behind a cellular process linked to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease.

Virtual reality software which allows researchers to ‘walk’ inside and analyse individual cells could be used to understand fundamental problems in biology and develop new treatments for disease.

Researchers have found that excess levels of calcium in brain cells may lead to the formation of toxic clusters that are the hallmark of Parkinson’s disease.

Observation of the point at which proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease become toxic to brain cells could help identify how and why people develop the disease, and aid in the search for potential treatments.

Cambridge scientists are part of a resolution revolution. Building powerful instruments that shatter the physical limits of optical microscopy, they are beginning to watch molecular processes as they happen, and in three dimensions.

A clinical trial due to begin later this year will see scientists observing close up, in real time – and in patients – how tumours respond to new drugs.

From visualising microscopic cells to massive galaxies, imaging is a core tool for many disciplines, and it’s also the basis of a surge in recent technical developments – some of which are being pioneered in Cambridge. Today, we begin a month-long focus on research that is exploring far beyond what the eye can see, introduced here by Stella Panayotova, Stefanie Reichelt and Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb.

A new study at the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge has allowed researchers to peer into unexplored regions of the genome and understand for the first time the role played by more than 250 genes key to cell growth and development.

This electron microscope picture, reminiscent of man-made baskets or children’s blocks, shows cubic salt crystals that have been forced to form in spheres, as Rox Middleton explains.

A ground-breaking imaging system to track malarial infection of blood cells in real time has been created by a collaboration catalysed by the ̽»¨Ö±²¥â€™s Physics of Medicine Initiative.