Painting from Life

The cell nucleus is like a bustling capital city at night – thriving with lively traffic in complete darkness were it not for artificial light. Important decisions made inside can affect the life of the entire cell. Here researchers create maps of the organisation of the nucleus in human cells. They use an updated version of a technique called DNA-PAINT to label different nuclear molecules with tiny strands of DNA carrying different colours, blinking like street lights (although a million times smaller) when zapped with lasers from above. The yellow structures here are the chromatin protecting the genetic information, usually open and spread out so genes can be 'switched on' or transcribed to guide the cell. Here though, DNA-PAINT pictures the scene after transcription is blocked, watching as regions of the chromatin condense into spherical 'speckles'. Such details may help to explore nuclear life in health and disease.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Abhinav Banerjee, and Micky Anand, and colleagues
• Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Malleswaram, Bangalore, India
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, April 2026