Instant super-resolution imaging in live cells and embryos via analog image processing

Nat Methods. 2013 Nov;10(11):1122-6. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2687. Epub 2013 Oct 6.

Abstract

Existing super-resolution fluorescence microscopes compromise acquisition speed to provide subdiffractive sample information. We report an analog implementation of structured illumination microscopy that enables three-dimensional (3D) super-resolution imaging with a lateral resolution of 145 nm and an axial resolution of 350 nm at acquisition speeds up to 100 Hz. By using optical instead of digital image-processing operations, we removed the need to capture, store and combine multiple camera exposures, increasing data acquisition rates 10- to 100-fold over other super-resolution microscopes and acquiring and displaying super-resolution images in real time. Low excitation intensities allow imaging over hundreds of 2D sections, and combined physical and computational sectioning allow similar depth penetration to spinning-disk confocal microscopy. We demonstrate the capability of our system by imaging fine, rapidly moving structures including motor-driven organelles in human lung fibroblasts and the cytoskeleton of flowing blood cells within developing zebrafish embryos.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Embryo, Mammalian / cytology*
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence