[2] He developed cryofixation methods and pioneered their use for preserving cellular structures for electron microscope studies.
[3][4] Application of these methods to the analysis of plant, animal and bacterial cells brought insights into the nanoscale architecture and functional organization of membranous organelles and cytoskeletal systems.
[5][6][7][8] Staehelin taught undergraduate and graduate courses in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
[9] From 1966 to 1969 he worked as a scientist at the Physics and Engineering Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in New Zealand.
[15] Vitrification of plant cells using propane-jet freezing led to the discovery that cellulose fibrils were synthesized by plasma membrane-associated rosette particle complexes,[16] and the demonstration that vesicle-mediated secretion and membrane recycling in turgid cells involves characteristic, transient membrane configurations.