Tools Collection 2026

This collection highlights recent Tools published in JCB. These papers present methodological advances that make new questions accessible to investigation, and each applies its method to a biological problem, demonstrating the power of the approach while revealing novel biological insights. Selected articles describe new methods for segmentation and quantitation of electron microscopy data, expansion microscopy that reveals interactions between organelles, and in vivo mapping of peroxisome dynamics. These Tools will be applicable to a variety of fields across cell biology, including structural biology, transcriptomics, phase separation, genetics, and neuroscience.

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Image © 2026 Glushkova et al.

See caption for figure 7E in relevant article.
Tools
Ca2+ spikes and waves regulate organelle dynamics
Lan Yang; Mikael Björklund; Cong Yi; Shue Chen; Zhi Hong
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202506032
Tools
Leader cell transcriptomics in C. elegans
Priti Agarwal; Iska Maimon Zielonka; Hila Gingold; Victor Stolzenbach; Sarit Anava; Olga Antonova; Erin J. Cram; Oded Rechavi; Ronen Zaidel-Bar
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202509224
Tools
Landscape expansion microscopy
Yinyin Zhuang; Zhao Zhang; Zhipeng Dai; Xiaoyu Shi
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202502035
Tools
Spatiotemporally inducible genome editing by Cas9
Yaqi Li; Weiying Zhang; Zihang Wei; Han Li; Xin Liu; Tao Zheng; Tursunjan Aziz; Cencan Xing; Anming Meng; Xiaotong Wu
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202412216
Tools
In vivo peroxisome dynamics and pexophagy mapping
Yue Xiong; Weihua Gao; Zelai Wu; Rongbin Ding; Hangbin Ma; Jiahua Zheng; Boran Li; Yongjuan Sang; Lingling Zhang; Weihua Gong; Wei Liu; Xiukui Gao; Qiming Sun
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202503169
Tools
Measuring local membrane thickness in cells
Michaela Medina; Ya-Ting Chang; Hamidreza Rahmani; Mark Frank; Zidan Khan; Daniel Fuentes; Frederick A. Heberle; M. Neal Waxham; Benjamin A. Barad; Danielle A. Grotjahn
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202505059
Tools
Direct measurement of membrane thickness in situ
Desislava Glushkova; Stefanie Böhm; Martin Beck
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202504053
Tools
PILS-Nir1 is a novel phosphatidic acid biosensor
Claire C. Weckerly; Taylor A. Rahn; Max Ehrlich; Rachel C. Wills; Joshua G. Pemberton; Michael V. Airola; Gerald R.V. Hammond
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202405174
Tools
Mitochondrial intrusion sites revealed by AIVE
Benjamin S. Padman; Runa S.J. Lindblom; Michael Lazarou
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202411138
Tools
HaloTag tool to study protein variants in cells
Anoop Kumar Yadav; Abhijeet S. Jadhav; Pawel M. Szczepanik; Paolo Fagherazzi; Ivo Kabelka; Robert Vácha; Jakub Svenda; Hana Polasek-Sedlackova
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202410025
Tools
Tools for rapid repositioning of vimentin
Milena Pasolli; Joyce C.M. Meiring; James P. Conboy; Gijsje H. Koenderink; Anna Akhmanova
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202504004