Adaptive optics for fluorescence wide-field microscopy using spectrally independent guide star and markers

To be more precise: the role of intracellular trafficking in development and pattern formation

Living cells interpret a variety of signals in different contexts to elucidate functional responses. While the understanding of signalling molecules, their respective receptors and response at the gene transcription level have been relatively well-explored, how exactly does a single cell interpret a plethora of time-varying signals? Furthermore, how their subsequent responses at the single cell level manifest in the larger context of a developing tissue is unknown. At the same time, the biophysics and chemistry of how receptors are trafficked through the complex dynamic transport network between the plasma membrane-endosome-lysosome-Golgi-endoplasmic reticulum are much more well-studied. How the intracellular organisation of the cell and inter-organellar contacts aid in orchestrating trafficking, as well as signal interpretation and modulation by the cells are beginning to be uncovered. In this review, we highlight the significant developments that have strived to integrate endosomal trafficking, signal interpretation in the context of developmental biology and relevant open questions with a few chosen examples. Furthermore, we will discuss the imaging technologies that have been developed in the recent past that have the potential to tremendously accelerate knowledge gain in this direction while shedding light on some of the many challenges.

Single-Cell Optical Distortion Correction and Label-Free 3D Cell Shape Reconstruction on Lattices of Nanostructures

Imaging techniques can be compromised by aberrations. Especially when imaging through biological specimens, sample-induced distortions can limit localization accuracy. In particular, this phenomenon affects localization microscopy, traction force measurements, and single-particle tracking, which offer high-resolution insights into biological tissue. Here we present a method for quantifying and correcting the optical distortions induced by single, adherent, living cells. The technique uses periodically patterned gold nanostructures as a reference framework to quantify optically induced displacements with micrometer-scale sampling density and an accuracy of a few nanometers. The 3D cell shape and a simplified geometrical optics approach are then utilized to remap the microscope image. Our experiments reveal displacements of up to several hundred nanometers, and in corrected images these distortions are reduced by a factor of 3. Conversely, the relationship between cell shape and distortion provides a novel method of 3D cell shape reconstruction from a single image, enabling label-free 3D cell analysis.

Blind deconvolution of 3D fluorescence microscopy using depth-variant asymmetric PSF

The 3D wide-field fluorescence microscopy suffers from depth-variant asymmetric blur. The depth-variance and axial asymmetry are due to refractive index mismatch between the immersion and the specimen layer. The radial asymmetry is due to lens imperfections and local refractive index inhomogeneities in the specimen. To obtain the PSF that has these characteristics, there were PSF premeasurement trials. However, they are useless since imaging conditions such as camera position and refractive index of the specimen are changed between the premeasurement and actual imaging. In this article, we focus on removing unknown depth-variant asymmetric blur in such an optical system under the assumption of refractive index homogeneities in the specimen. We propose finding few parameters in the mathematical PSF model from observed images in which the PSF model has a depth-variant asymmetric shape. After generating an initial PSF from the analysis of intensities in the observed image, the parameters are estimated based on a maximum likelihood estimator. Using the estimated PSF, we implement an accelerated GEM algorithm for image deconvolution. Deconvolution result shows the superiority of our algorithm in terms of accuracy, which quantitatively evaluated by FWHM, relative contrast, standard deviation values of intensity peaks and FWHM. Microsc. Res. Tech. 79:480-494, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sensorless adaptive optics implementation in widefield optical sectioning microscopy inside in vivo Drosophila brain

We present an implementation of a sensorless adaptive optics loop in a widefield fluorescence microscope. This setup is designed to compensate for aberrations induced by the sample on both excitation and emission pathways. It allows fast optical sectioning inside a living Drosophila brain. We present a detailed characterization of the system performances. We prove that the gain brought to optical sectioning by realizing structured illumination microscopy with adaptive optics down to 50 μm deep inside living Drosophila brain.

Aberration correction in coherence imaging microscopy using an image inverting interferometer

We present an imaging method with the ability to correct even large optical phase aberrations in a purely numerical way. For this purpose, the complex coherence function in the pupil plane of the microscope objective is measured with the help of an image inverting interferometer. By means of a Fourier transform, it is possible to reconstruct the spatially incoherent object distribution. We demonstrate that aberrations symmetric to the optical axis do not impair the imaging quality of such a coherence imaging system. Furthermore, we show that it is possible to gain an almost complete correction of remaining aberrations with the help of a reference measurement. A mathematical derivation is given and experimentally verified. To demonstrate the ability of our method, randomly generated aberrations with peak-to-valley values of up to 8 λ are corrected.

Direct wavefront sensing in adaptive optical microscopy using backscattered light

Adaptive optics has been used to compensate the detrimental effects of aberrations in a range of high-resolution microscopes. We investigate how backscattered laser illumination can be used as the source for direct wavefront sensing using a pinhole-filtered Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. It is found that the sensor produces linear response to input aberrations for a given specimen. The gradient of this response is dependent upon experimental configuration and specimen structure. Cross sensitivity between modes is also observed. The double pass nature of the microscope system leads in general to lower sensitivity to odd-symmetry aberration modes. The results show that there is potential for use of this type of wavefront sensing in microscopes.