IsoView
Whole-Animal Functional Imaging in Larval Drosophila
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(October 26, 2015) High-Speed
Microscope Images Entire Living Organisms at High Resolution
Summary
Within less than a second, the new IsoView microscope
produces images of entire organisms, such as a zebrafish or fruit fly embryo,
with enough resolution in all three dimensions that each cell appears as a
distinct structure.
A new microscope developed at the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute's Janelia Research Campus is giving scientists a clearer, more
comprehensive view of biological processes as they unfold in living animals.
The microscope produces images of entire organisms, such as a zebrafish or
fruit fly embryo, with enough resolution in all three dimensions that each cell
appears as a distinct structure. What's more, it does so at speeds fast enough
to watch cells move as a developing embryo takes shape and to monitor brain
activity as it flashes through neuronal circuits.
Nearly two years in development, Janelia group leader
Philipp Keller says his team has built the first light microscope capable of
imaging large, non-transparent specimens at sub-second temporal resolution and
sub-cellular spatial resolution in all dimensions.
Keller, and his team at Janelia aim to understand how a
functioning nervous system emerges in an embryo. Over the last five years, they
have devised several imaging technologies that make it possible to image large
biological samples at high speed. His lab’s newest microscope, called the
IsoView light sheet microscope, overcomes a final challenge—improving spatial
resolution—without sacrificing the performance features of his team’s previous
microscopes. The IsoView microscope is described in an article published online
on October 26, 2015, in the journal Nature Methods. The publication includes
complete building plans for the microscope and the associated image processing
software developed by Keller's team.