Multiview Super-resolution Microscopy System and Methods for Research and Diagnostic Applications
This technology includes a microscopy technique that combines the strengths of multiview imaging (better resolution isotropy, better depth penetration) with resolution-improving structured illumination microscopy (SIM). The proposed microscope uses a sharp line-focused illumination structure to excite and confocally detect sample fluorescence from 3 complementary views. Since resolution along any particular axis is defined by the super-resolved lateral resolution improvement obtained via that axis, axial resolution is improved ~2-fold over the current state of the art (traditional 3D SIM), while introducing less dose and operating at higher speed. Included are additional methods for further improving speed and resolution and reducing phototoxicity. The new computational / optical methods we propose also will provide the basis for powerful machine learning methods that will further improve the performance of the microscope.
- The combination of super-resolution and multiview imaging offers benefits that are absent in either technique alone (e.g. an improved volumetric resolution compared to single-view techniques, improved depth penetration and sample coverage relative to single-view techniques; ~8-fold higher volume resolution compared to diffraction-limited multiview imaging)
- The invention contains computational algorithms embedded in its very core and will very likely provide a model for the growing field of ‘computational microscopy’ methods