A new microscopy technique developed by 2014 Nobel Prize winner Eric Betzig allows scientists to peek inside cells and watch them change in real time.

Betzig, a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Va., won the Nobel Prize earlier this month for his work in high-resolution microscopes--but his new study in "lattice light-sheet microscopy" has already taken him much further, the Washington Post reported.

While working with PALM, his prize-winning microscope, Betzig became frustrated with "the limits of the technology," he told the Post. PALM could only capture living systems that moved slowly, failing when it came to rapid cellular divisions.

Publishing the findings today in Science, Betzig and his colleagues have outlined how the new device captures movies of cell division and hints at future research to understand cancer and birth defects.

"We can slice and dice like a deli," Betzig told Bloomberg News by phone. "We can track and see the production of single molecules, trace them and see how they assemble into structures. It's going to be a go-to tool for live imaging."

The researchers used a lattice light sheet to manipulate light to come in through the side, creating an image while doing less damage to the cells. The device goes beyond earlier microscopy to capture 3D images in real time.

"It's not good to park in one plane and get a 2D image," Betzig told Bloomberg. "You need a continuous picture of how things are evolving, and not a slow series of snapshots where you don't know how frame A is related to frame B."

Being able to watch cells in real time could be key to helping scientists understand how cancer metastasizes and how birth defects develop while embryos go through cell division.

"Every week we have new research groups coming in," said Betzig, as quoted by the Post, "and not to pat my own back too much, but I feel a bit like Galileo--everywhere you point this thing, you're going to learn something new."

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