The photo above shows an osteosarcoma (bone cancer) cell. Osteosarcoma is a type of bone cancer usually seen in teens, when their bones are growing quite quickly. This mesmerizing photo was taken by Dr. Dylan Burnette of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Burnette took this photo by using Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) at a magnification of 63x. SIM is a type of light microscopy that projects a certain light pattern onto the sample. The caption for this photo said the osteosarcoma cell was showing actin filaments, and I did not know what that meant. Turns out, filaments are thin, thread-like fibers in animal cells, and actin filaments are the thinnest filaments, which I discovered after some researching (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actin)
What do the filaments do for the cell? Do they assist in the cancer cell growth and spread?
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