/ News
Novel imaging technique captures beauty of metal-labeled neurons in 3-D
Researchers have discovered a dazzling new method of visualizing neurons that promises to benefit neuroscientists and cell biologists alike: by using spectral confocal microscopy to image tissues impregnated with silver or gold.
Rather than relying on the amount of light reflecting off metal particles, this novel process, to be presented in the journal eLife, involves delivering light energy to silver or gold nanoparticles deposited on neurons and imaging the higher energy levels resulting from their vibrations, known as surface plasmons.
This technique is particularly effective as the light emitted from metal particles is resistant to fading, meaning that decades-old tissue samples achieved through other processes, such as the Golgi stain method from the late 1880s, can be imaged repeatedly.
The new process was achieved by using spectral detection on a Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope (LSCM), first made available in the late 1980s and, until now, used most extensively for fluorescent imaging.
Paired with such methods, silver- and gold-based cell labeling is poised to unlock new information in a myriad of archived specimens. Furthermore, silver-impregnated preparations should retain their high image quality for a century or more, allowing for archivability that could aid in clinical research and disease-related diagnostic techniques for cancer and neurological disorders.
"For the purposes of medical diagnostics, older and newer specimens could be compared with the knowledge that signal intensity would remain fairly uniform regardless of sample age or repeated light exposure," says contributing author Karen Mesce from the University of Minnesota.
"With the prediction that superior resolution microscopic techniques will continue to evolve, older archived samples could be reimagined with newer technologies and with the confidence that the signal in question was preserved. The progression or stability of a cancer or other disease could therefore be charted with accuracy over long periods of time."
To appreciate the enhanced image quality produced by the new technique, the team first examined a conventional brightfield image of a metal-labelled neuron within a grasshopper's abdominal ganglion, a type of mini-brain which, even at that size, presented out-of-focus structures.
They then imaged the same ganglion with the spectral LSCM adjusted to the manufacturer's traditional fluorescence settings, resulting only in strong natural fluorescence and a collective dark blur in place of the silver-labelled neurons.
However, after collecting the light energy emitted from vibrating surface plasmons in the spectral LSCM, the team obtained spectacular three-dimensional computer images of silver and gold-impregnated neurons. This holds enormous potential for stimulating a re-examination of archived preparations, including Golgi-stained and cobalt/silver-labelled nervous systems.
Additionally, by using a number of different metal-based cell-labeling techniques in combination with the new LSCM protocols, tissue and cell specimens can be generated and imaged with ease and in great three-dimensional detail. Changes in even small structural details of neurons can be identified, which are often important indicators of neurological disease, learning and memory, and brain development.
"Both new and archived preparations are essentially permanent and the information gathered from them increases the data available for characterizing neurons as individuals or as members of classes for comparative studies, adding to emerging neuronal banks," says co-first author Karen Thompson from Agnes Scott College.
"Just as plasmon resonance can explain the continued intensity of the red (caused by silver nanoparticles) and yellow (gold nanoparticles) colors in centuries-old medieval stained glass and other works of art, metal-impregnated neurons are also likely never to fade, neither in the information they provide nor in their intrinsic beauty," adds Mesce.
Explore further: Plasmonics: Growth lamps for nanoparticles
More information: Karen J Thompson et al. Plasmon resonance and the imaging of metal-impregnated neurons with the laser scanning confocal microscope, eLife (2015). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09388
Source: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-imaging-technique-captures-beauty-metal-labeled.html
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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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