Microscope sees the big picture
Selective plane illumination microscopy can map millimeters-sized samples in
vivo
By Charles Q Choi

A new microscope can generate three-dimensional images of living specimens
with a greater combination of depth and precision than before, according to
a report in the August 13 Science. Researchers say the novel technique could
prove useful for peering inside developing embryos, for example, to track
gene and protein expression patterns over days.

"The direction we see for our instrument is to perform experiments with
whole organisms that mimic physiological conditions to get a better picture
of everything that's going on," researcher Ernst Stelzer, from the European
Molecular Biology Laboratory at Heidelberg, told The Scientist.

Stelzer and colleagues sought to devise a method to map relatively large
millimeter-sized samples in vivo. Optical projection tomography can image
embryos at high resolution, but of fixed specimens only. Magnetic resonance
imaging and optical coherence tomography feature noninvasive imaging, but do
not easily provide specific contrasts. Laser scanning microscopy (LSM) can
use green fluorescent protein (GFP) or similar labels as contrasting agents
for high resolution imaging of protein localization patterns in living
organisms, but suffers from limited penetration depth in heterogeneous
samples.

Read the rest at The Scientist
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040813/03

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