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Dramatic Advances In Super-Resolution Imaging
This video is from the high numerical aperture TIRF-SIM microscope showing 181 frames at 5-second intervals in a COS-7 cell at 37°C expressing mEmerald-CLTA (green) and mCherry-Lifeact (orange-red). [Betzig Lab, HHMI/Janelia Research Campus]
Technological advances in the field of microscopy and imaging have seen a flurry of activity over the past several years, with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry going to the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy in 2014. One of the three scientists awarded the Noble for this advancement has been actively pursuing new methods to visualize living cells with far superior clarity. He believes the new methods dramatically improve the spatial resolution provided by structured illumination microscopy, which is currently one of the best imaging methods for seeing inside living cells.
"These methods set a new standard for how far you can push the speed and non-invasiveness of super-resolution imaging," explained senior author and Nobel Laureate Eric Betzig, Ph.D., group leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus. "This will bring super-resolution to live-cell imaging for real."
The findings from this study were published recently in Science through an article entitled “Extended-resolution structured illumination imaging of endocytic and cytoskeletal dynamics.”
The images and videos produced with this new technology, a variation of structured illumination microscopy (SIM), can now show the movement and interactions of proteins as cells remodel their structural supports or reorganize their membranes to take up molecules from outside the cell. This adds to the tools available for super-resolution optical microscopy since it had been impractical for use in imaging living cells.
In traditional SIM, the sample under the lens is observed while it is illuminated by a pattern of light (similar to scanning a barcode). Several different light patterns are applied, and the resulting patterns, called moiré, are captured from various angles each time by a digital camera. Computer software then extracts the information from the moiré images and translates it into a three-dimensional, high-resolution reconstruction. The final reconstructed image has twice the spatial resolution that can be obtained with traditional light microscopy.
"I fell in love with SIM because of its speed and the fact that it took so much less light than the other methods," Dr. Betzig noted.
Dr. Betzig and his team were convinced that SIM had the potential to generate significant insights into cellular mechanics, and he suspected that improving the technique's spatial resolution would go a long way toward increasing its use by biologists.
However, traditional SIM was not suitable for living cells, as the method was designed to generate an image by switching on all of the fluorescent labels in the cell and then deactivate them with a different wavelength of light—repeating the process 25 times or more to construct a high-resolution image.
"The problem with this approach is that you first turn on all the molecules, then you immediately turn off almost all the molecules,” stated Dr. Betzig. “The molecules you've turned off don't contribute anything to the image, but you've just fried them twice. You're stressing the molecules, and it takes a lot of time, which you don't have because the cell is moving."
To Dr. Betzig and his team, the solution seemed almost too simple: "Don't turn on all of the molecules. There's no need to do that." Alternatively, the new method, called patterned photoactivation non-linear SIM, begins by switching on just a subset of fluorescent labels in a sample with a pattern of light. "The patterning of that gives you some high-resolution information already," Dr. Betzig explained.
The scientists created a new pattern of light to deactivate molecules and extract information from their deactivation. The combined effect of those patterns led to final images with 62-nanometer resolution—much better than standard SIM and a threefold improvement over the limits imposed by the wavelength of light.
"We can do it and we can do it fast," said Dr. Betzig. "If something in the cell is moving at a micron a second and I have a one-micron resolution, I can take that image in a second. But if I have a 1/10-micron resolution, I have to take the data in a tenth of a second, or else it will smear out."
Dr. Betzig and his team were excited by their results and hope to make their methods available to more researchers in the near future. However, he went on to note that "most of the magic is in the software, not the hardware."
Source: http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/expanding-the-super-resolution-arsenal/81251676/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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