Scientists Use Adaptive Optics to Develop New Microscopy Technique

A new imaging microscopy technique was developed by researchers at the Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus that is capable of correcting distortions and distributing light efficiently to capture high resolution images.

The approach is considered as a form of adaptive optics, and it was first applied to capturing tissues that are incapable of scattering light. The experiment captured the transparent bodies of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans and zebrafish, which are both important biological models. According to research leader, Eric Betzig, the technique was developed by using adaptive optics that is used by ophthalmologists and astronomers.

"Our technique is really robust, and you don't need anything special to apply our technology. [In the future] it could be a very convenient add-on component to commercially available microscopes," post-doctoral researcher at Betzig's laboratory, Kai Wang stated in a news release.

For their experiment, the team developed a model star by using the light from the microscope. After that, they employed a technique called two-photon excitation, which allowed them to illuminate a particular area of the tissue by penetrating it with infrared light. The wavefront sensor would calculate how the light bounced back into the guide star and applied the necessary corrections to the image.

However, since biological models are more complicated to document, Betzig explained in the news release that, "As light from the guide star returns to the sensor, the wavefront gets much bumpier in microscopy than in astronomy. If you fix the guide star at a single point, that bumpiness confuses the sensor, so you don't get a good correction." He also added that corrections could not be applied in another region where the light bends in a different way.

The researchers found out that to overcome this problem, they need to develop a guide star in a smaller region rather than install a guide star for the whole tissue. The guide star must also be stationary for the sensor to come up with correct readings of the light that bounced back.

Betzig added that a similar technology is used in the creation of adaptive optics that corrects the light supply that enters a patient's retina. Ophthalmic imaging, just like this new imaging technique, reduces the motion-related errors by using a stationary guide star.

Further details of the study were published in the April 15 issue of Nature Methods.

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