This research program aims at developing new scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) techniques for biomedical research to investigate the molecular machinery underlying cellular function. Electron microscopy presently has its strength in imaging with high spatial resolution. New phenomena may be discovered by improving the capabilities of time-resolved and three-dimensional (3D) imaging under native conditions. The program includes research on real-time imaging of biological specimen with liquid STEM, in situ STEM, 3D STEM and new electron sources. This research is conducted by an interdisciplinary team of physicists, biologists, chemists, materials scientists and engineers. The project is situated in the Microscopy Group of the Materials Science and Technology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and in the department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics of the Medical School at Vanderbilt University.