Photonic chip-based microscopy enables high throughput super-resolution microscopy
Since the advent of super-resolution optical microscopy over two decades ago, this set of techniques has significantly shed light on the understanding of biological dynamics occurring in the nano-scale world. Despite their great potential for applications in clinical settings, the so-called optical nanoscopy techniques are still far from being adopted in histopathological workflows. The reasons range from system complexity, high operational costs, the need for specialized operators and, importantly, a slow imaging throughput that is insufficient for routine analysis.
Fig. 1. a) Top view of a photonic chip containing ultrathin cryosections covered with cryoprotectant and surrounded by a custom-made transparent PDMS frame. b) The photonic chip allows decoupling of the excitation and the collection light paths, enabling total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy using conventional microscope objectives. c) Multicolor observation of human placental chorionic villi imaged at incremental magnifications from left to right. Membranes are shown in yellow, F-actin in magenta and nuclei in cyan.
Researchers at the optical nanoscopy research group at UiT The Arctic University of Norway have recently demonstrated the capabilities of photonic chip-based microscopy (Fig. 1) for high-throughput and high-resolution imaging of tissue sections, paving the way for future implementations of optical nanoscopy in histopathological settings.
Reference:
Villegas-Hernández, Luis E., et al. "Chip-based multimodal super-resolution microscopy for histological investigations of cryopreserved tissue sections." Light: Science & Applications 11.1 (2022): 1-17.
Published June 13, 2022 9:26 PM
