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Imaging  Living Cells and Devices

Curator: Danut Dragoi, PhD

Imaging living cells is for a good number of years a hot place in Biology, Physics, Chemistry as well as Engineering and Technology for producing specific devices to visualize living cells. In this presentation is shown my opinion on this topic regarding actual status of applied technology for visualizing living cells as well as small small areas of interest.

Slide #1

Slide #2

As an overview, slide #2 describes: higher resolution imaging of living cells based on advanced CT and MicroCT scanners, and their actual technological trend,  advanced optical microscopy, optical magnetic imaging of living cells, and conclusion.

Slide #3

Slide #3 describes a schematic of a computing tomography applied to a single cell, see the inside URL address. The work is in progress as a SBIR application of a group of researchers from Arizona State.The partial section of the cell is supposed to  reveal the contents of the cell, which is very important in Biology and Medicine.

Slide #4

Slide #4 describes the principle of computed tomography for relative small objects that are expose by a soft x-ray source on the left, an x-ray detector screen that takes the x-ray projection radiography for the sample on the right. The sample is rotated discretely a small number of degrees and pictures recorded. Depending on the absorption of the sample, the reconstructed 3D object is possible. The resolution of the reconstructed object is a function of the number of pixels as well as the pitch distance d (in the slide 0.127 microns). Because the sample is rotated, the precision of the axis of rotation is very important and becomes a challenging task for small objects.

Slide #5

Slide #5 shows a sample taken from the URL address given below the picture. It represents an insect and the future CT development is expected to produce similar images for mono living cells.

Slide #6

For many Bio-labs the reverse optical microscope is the working horse. The slide above shows a such microscope with a culture cell inside a transparent box. The picture can be found at the address shown inside the slide.

Slide #7

Slide #7 describes an innovative digital microscope from Keyence in which we can observe any object entirely in focus, a 20x greater depth-of-field than an optical microscope, we can view objects from any angle, and measure lengths directly on screen.

Slide #8

Slide #8 shows an actual innovative digital microscope from Keyence, see the website address at the bottom of the slide.

Slide #9

As we know, the samples visualized by a common optical microscope have to be flat on the surface to be visualized because there is no clear image above and below the focal plane, which is the surface of the sample. For a con-focal microscope the situation is changed. Objects can be visualized at different depths and image files recorded can reconstruct as 3D image object.

Slide #10

Slide #10 describes the principle of a con-focal microscope, in which a green laser on left side excites molecules of the specimen at a given depth of focusing, the molecules emit on red light (less energetic than green light) that go all way to the photo-multiplier, which has a small pinhole aperture in front of it that limits the entrance of red rays (parasitic light) from out of range area. More details can be found at the URL address given at the bottom of the slide.

Slide #11

Slide #11 shows a sample of a living specimen taken with a Leica micro-system, see the website address inside the slide.

Slide #12

Slide #12 shows the principle of fluorescent microscope and how it works. A light source is filtered to allow blue light (energetic photons for excitation of the molecules of the specimen), the green light emitted is going through objective and ocular lenses and further to the photo-multiplier or digital camera.

Slide #13

For their discovery of fluorescent microscopy, Eric Betzig, William Moerner and Stefan Hell won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 2014,  for “the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy,” which brings optical microscopy into the nano-dimension.

Slide #14

Slide #14 introduces the improvement on micro CT scanners for imaging living cells which now is on R & D under heavy development.  The goal is to visualize the interior of living cells. Challenging tasks are: miniaturization, respond to customer needs, low cost, and versatility.

Slide #15

Slide #15 shows the schematic for an optical magnetic imaging microscope for visualizing living cells with one dimension less than 500 nm. The website address gven describes in details the working principle.

Slide #16

Slide #16 shows the picture of a hand held microscope that is useful on finding spot cancer in moments, ses the website.

Slide #17

Slide #17 shows a hand held MRI that connects to an iPhone. It is useful device for detecting cancer cells.

Slide #18

Slide #18 shows in comparison a portable NMR device, left side, and a Lab NMR instrument whose height is greater than 5 Ft. The spectrum in the left side is that of Toluene and a capillary sample holder is shown also next to the magnetic device.

Slide #19

Slide #19 shows that the hand held MRI can recognize complex molecules,  can diagnose cancer faster, can be connected to a smartphone, and be accurate on precise measurements.

Slide #20

An optical dental camera is shown in slide #20. It is less then $100 and a USB cable can connect to a computer. It is very useful for every family in checking the status of the teeth and gums.

Slide #21

For detecting dental cavities the x-ray source packaged as a camera and the sensor that connects to a computer are very useful tools in a dental office.

Slide #22

Slide #22 shows the conclusions of the presentation, in which we summarize: the automated con-focal microscope partially satisfies the actual needs for imaging of living cells, the optical magnetic imaging microscope for living cells is a promising technique,
a higher resolution is needed on all actual microscopes,  the advanced CT and Micro CT scanners provide a new avenue on the investigation of living cells, more research needed
on hand-held MRI, which is a new solution for complex molecules recognition including cancer