New Microscopy Technique Offers Astounding Resolution Over Time

By Bio-IT World Staff

October 23, 2014 | A paper published today in Science describes a new type of fluorescence microscope that is capable of taking images of living, three-dimensional systems over long periods of time without degrading cells or fluorescent molecules. The technique, named "lattice light-sheet microscopy," works by shining a grid of light laterally across a sample, illuminating fluorescent molecules without exposing the sample to damaging excess light. Remarkably, the team that created this technique at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is led by Eric Betzig, who just two weeks ago was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on a different type of fluorescence microscopy, which provided images at unprecedented spatial resolution, but did not offer the same temporal resolution as this latest innovation.

Lattice light-sheet microscopy can be used to generate 3D images of microscopic structures over long periods of time, resolving the real-time activities of cells, microorganisms and certain molecular structures. The Washington Post presents two videos created with the technique, of a moving group of cancer cells and an embryonic nematode worm, and many more have been published as supplementary materials alongside the Science paper. (This writer particularly recommends this video of a HeLa cell.) The Post story also includes an interview with Thomas Kirchhausen, a cell biologist who was not involved in the paper but has been using an early lattice light-sheet microscope since August.

Betzig's and his colleagues' new microscopes are sure to provide countless surprising observations about biology on its smallest scales in the months and years to come. For now, as the paper states in its abstract, "The results provide a visceral reminder of the beauty and the complexity of living systems."