{"id":230615,"date":"2026-02-05T13:13:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/expansion-microscopy-has-transformed-how-we-see-the-cellular-world"},"modified":"2026-02-05T13:13:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:13:23","slug":"expansion-microscopy-has-transformed-how-we-see-the-cellular-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/expansion-microscopy-has-transformed-how-we-see-the-cellular-world","title":{"rendered":"Expansion Microscopy Has Transformed How We See the Cellular World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/expansion-microscopy-has-transformed-how-we-see-the-cellular-world2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Expansion microscopy is possible for any lab with a basic microscope. Specific biomolecules such as proteins are anchored to a hydrogel. As the gel absorbs added water, it swells and the space between the anchor points dilates. This allows researchers to visualize extra-tiny anatomy or see inside cells with tough barriers.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>How physically magnifying objects using a key ingredient in diapers has opened an unprecedented view of the microbial world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Expansion microscopy is possible for any lab with a basic microscope. Specific biomolecules such as proteins are anchored to a hydrogel. As the gel absorbs added water, it swells and the space between the anchor points dilates. This allows researchers to visualize extra-tiny anatomy or see inside cells with tough barriers. How physically magnifying objects [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}