{"id":243577,"date":"2026-09-03T13:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/scientists-can-now-see-dna-folding-at-near-molecular-resolution"},"modified":"2026-09-03T13:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:04:10","slug":"scientists-can-now-see-dna-folding-at-near-molecular-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/scientists-can-now-see-dna-folding-at-near-molecular-resolution","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Can Now See DNA Folding at Near-Molecular Resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-can-now-see-dna-folding-at-near-molecular-resolution3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The finding could eventually enable the use of DNA packaging in cells for disease diagnosis and treatment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In preserved cells, newly developed fluorescent probes allowed researchers to pinpoint individual dye molecules to within 3 nanometers, close to the width of the DNA double helix itself. The same molecules can also reveal how DNA is packaged and moves inside living cells, giving scientists a way to examine chromatin at resolutions that were previously difficult to achieve without killing the cells.<\/p>\n<p>When the team tested the probes on wax-preserved bowel tissue from three cancer patients, they found another striking difference. DNA in the tumors appeared noticeably looser and more spread out than in healthy tissue immediately beside it. Other research has found that DNA progressively unpacks as cancer develops, raising the possibility that its degree of folding could eventually provide information about how advanced or aggressive a tumor is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The finding could eventually enable the use of DNA packaging in cells for disease diagnosis and treatment. In preserved cells, newly developed fluorescent probes allowed researchers to pinpoint individual dye molecules to within 3 nanometers, close to the width of the DNA double helix itself. The same molecules can also reveal how DNA is packaged [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243577","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\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}