Invention:
This technology is an improvement to the well-established microscopy technique structured illumination microscopy (SIM), which uses a periodic structured pattern of light to image a sample. In SIM, it is common for artifacts to arise during imaging, because the pattern is often distorted due to aberration and index mismatches in samples. These artifacts distort the image and reduce the amount of information that can be extracted from the raw data. This technology is capable of correcting distortions in challenging experimental situations, such as strong background scattering, low signal-to-noise-ratio, and a sparse sample structure. In addition, it is easily applied to existing hardware, making it cost-effective and simple to implement into existing workflows, as opposed to current solutions which utilize much more expensive adaptive optics to accomplish the same effect.
Background:
Structured illumination microscopy has been around since the late 1990s but is still being improved as a technique. SIM can be used in multiple ways: optical sectioning structured illumination microscopy (OS-SIM) and super resolution structured illumination microscopy (SR-SIM), among others. OS-SIM allows the technique to act much like a confocal microscope, reducing out-of-focus light and thus increasing contrast. SR-SIM can be used to increase a microscope’s resolution below the diffraction limit of light, previously thought to be impossible. While it is currently better suited to techniques like OS-SIM, this technology has the potential to be applied to both types of SIM.
Other techniques for reduction of out-of-focus light exist, like Leica’s Computational Clearing technology, but they are more limited in their potential applications. This technology has the potential to cheaply and easily improve results from existing structured illumination microscopy hardware in a variety of different applications.
Applications:
- Structured illumination microscopy
- Brain imaging
Advantages:
- Improved image processing
- Cheaper than existing solutions (adaptive optics)
- Can be readily integrated with existing hardware
- Can correct distortion even in challenging experimental conditions
Status: U.S. issued patent #11,640,657
