Multimodal Microscopy of Focal Adhesions

Through the systematic application of various advanced light microscopy techniques, including super-resolution microscopy, we have described in greater detail the dynamic structure of focal adhesions, protein complexes through which cells attach to a surface. We show that the dynamics of focal adhesion proteins correlate with the position and orientation of a focal adhesion within the cell, that focal adhesions around the actin fibre attachment site have a higher density than other areas of the focal adhesion and that the ends of focal adhesions have a unique protein structure.