They are among those captured in a huge breakthrough for science made possible by a cutting-edge microscope in a Bendigo laboratory.

We've put them together in a gallery below.

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La Trobe University's Donna Whelan has shared the beautiful photos days after academic journal PNAS announced it would publish her landmark paper, co-authored with New York University's Eli Rothenberg.

Five years of painstaking research have now revealed the most detailed images yet of how "first responder" proteins race to fix damaged DNA in human cells.

Proteins are constantly fixing damaged DNA but the stakes can be high if something goes wrong, Dr Whelan said.

"Getting it wrong changes our genetic code. It can lead to mutations, which can then cause cancer, auto-immune diseases and all sorts of other issues," she said.

"If we understand how our body cells repair themselves naturally we can build on that in a clinical setting at a prevention level, at a treatment level, all that kind of stuff."

Read more: La Trobe University Bendigo's new world-class microscope

In the pictures below, special blue and yellow dyes were used to illuminate proteins. Pink dye illuminated newly replicated DNA that is repairing a cell.

The scientists did not create the images by tracking them live.

Instead they created composite images. Each was a snaphot of what was happening 10 minutes or an hour after DNA had been damaged, for example.

Dr Whelan and Dr Rothenberg are not the first to use "single molecule imaging" to view cells. The technology itself is about 15-years-old.

But they are the first to pinpoint proteins that detect and fix DNA double strand breaks.

"We could see when they (the proteins) turned up and how they interacted with the other molecules around the DNA," Dr Whelan said.

"It's a whole new level of detail in the visualisation of this damage."

The paper is the third in a series mapping protein movements.

It has been published thanks to years of collaborations with laboratories worldwide to hone custom-built microscopes in towns like Bendigo.

Other collaborations have helped establish the best ways to paint fluorescent dyes onto the molecules scientists are observing, and different ways to control cells, damage them or watch repairs.

Read more: Bendigo researcher blazing trails with award winning work

"It's a lot of work among lots of disciplines of science, which have all come together into this big paper we've been building towards," Dr Whelan said.

"We've started to find new steps and proteins that were not traditionally seen as potential targets for therapy or treatment.

"These last few papers have been changing the narrative."

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