Agrima Bhatt, Rajasthan University
As students of life sciences, we have always been told to first inspect carefully then ask questions. Inspecting at an early age takes a lot of patience, still, we held our specimen under the microscope, corrected the alignment of light, turned and tried to understand coarse and fine adjustment, then saw through the lens, maybe dust or maybe cells, don’t know! In higher studies, we understood the alignments, we understood aperture, focus, placed our specimen underneath the lens, and saw a different array of microscopic species.
However, this process is not only cumbersome and tiring but only helps in visualizing microscopic creatures at the two-dimensional level. There are a variety of characterization techniques that are currently available to users for the evaluation and characterization of the materials to aid in identifying its end-use applications by giving us in-depth knowledge of the structure and various other features such as molecular structure and topography.
Microscopic Techniques currently available to the world
One of the most traditional and simple techniques is optical microscopy, a two-dimensional imaging technique that is rapid and simple to learn but provides us with no comprehensive information to the advanced imaging techniques such as electron microscopy. Electron microscopy has helped us gain vivid clarity of the specimen since the very first prototype was launched in the early 20th Century. However, it cannot analyze live specimens and costs a fortune. It also only produces dual-colour images – black and white.
Multi-angle projection microscope
UT Southwestern scientists in collaboration with scientists from England and Australia have developed an optical device capable of converting two-dimensional images into 3-dimensional structures in very little time. This optical device visualizes the specimen from different angles as if the observer is rotating it in virtual reality in real-time.
Note for the readers, that the technology is currently undergoing development thereby making it an intensive process.
Working Principle of the novel imaging technique:
This optical device collects a number of two-dimensional images and assembles them into an entity known as an “image stack”. For visualization, all hundreds of 2-D images are compiled and loaded into graphic software to get processed and form different angles and different perspectives for one specimen and the user is thus able to visualize it in a 3-dimensional structure. However, scientists are always on a time constraint and this is an intense process which any normal computer cannot possibly handle.
Therefore, instead of capturing all 2-D images and rendering them with computer software, two rotating cameras were installed in front of the camera which makes the process easier to analyze the object from different perspectives. This also assures a quick approach in comparison with the previous ones because it now only needs one camera exposure instead of manifesting a full stack of images. With this novel imaging technique, scientists were able to capture signalling molecules such as calcium ions between neurons, cancer cells mutation, and a live zebrafish heart.
Fiolka, one of the developers of this device states that this invention could bring a paradigm shift for 3-D image visualization via the microscope.
Also read: Recent insights into myotendinous junction formation
References:
- Chang, B.-J., Manton, J. D., Sapoznik, E., Pohlkamp, T., Terrones, T. S., Welf, E. S., Murali, V. S., Roudot, P., Hake, K., Whitehead, L., York, A. G., Dean, K. M., & Fiolka, R. (2021). Real-time multi-angle projection imaging of biological dynamics. Nature Methods, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-021-01175-7
About author:
Agrima Bhatt is an undergraduate student studying BSc. Biotechnology in the pink city of Rajasthan known as Jaipur. She is a science and research enthusiast who also loves to write articles and short snippets. Some of her published articles at BioXone are:
- https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/scientists-develop-novel-cholera-vaccine-from-rice-grains/
- https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/ai-predicts-the-relation-between-viruses-and-mammals/
- https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/molecular-diagnostic-test-for-covid-testing-under-30-minutes/
- https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/gaining-popularity-of-methanol-dependent-bacteria-in-science/
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