STUDY AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL

POTSDAM — Izabela Sokolowska, a graduate student from Poland, points out a microscopic fish embryo on a computer screen in the biochemistry lab at Clarkson University.

The embryo is visible through a microscope that was recently loaned to biochemistry professor Costel C. Darie. Slightly smaller than a shoe box, the microscope will be used to study how cancer cells grow, as well as the effect of a recently discovered hormone on cancer growth.

"We work on cells to try to figure out what happens in the body," Mr. Darie said. "We want to see 24/7 what happens. This is an instrument that allows us to monitor remotely — even from home — to monitor how cells grow."

The fluorescence microscope is used to examine cells and molecules in two spectrums; it can switch between the visible light and the fluorescent light spectrums, and therefore show scientists twice as much information.

The microscope is special because of its size and price tag. It is much smaller and less expensive than a regular fluorescence microscope. The device, designed and built by a California company, can connect to any computer through a USB cord and is small enough to be moved between labs. Most are the size of an office desk.

It is not on the market yet; Clarkson is testing a beta version for the company.

'Usually the fluorescent microscopes are prohibitive for labs like ours, price-wise," Mr. Darie said. "This is the way to go; you don't have to have huge instruments. They can be made smaller and smaller and cheaper and cheaper."

It will be used to study the effect of a recently discovered hormone on prostate and breast cancers at Clarkson, as well as search for indicators of diseases along the autistic spectrum in children in partnership with scientists from the United Kingdom and Germany. The microscope will be in Potsdam for a few months.

So far, the microscope seems to be working well and helping Mr. Darie with his hope to expand Clarkson's work with proteins in biomedical research on cancer and autism. Most laboratories, he said, focus on genes rather than the proteins that genes produce.

His lab has several graduate students working in it, as well as a high school student who is shadowing one of his researchers.

"We're trying to do the work that nobody does, that nobody is allowed to do in this region," he said. "Clarkson is very well known for engineering but we are not known for biomedical research — but we can do it very successfully."