Lattice light-sheet microscopy

This is achieved by using a structured light sheet to excite fluorescence in successive planes of a specimen, generating a time series of 3D images which can provide information about dynamic biological processes.

However, the lobes of a Bessel functions carry as much energy as the central spot, resulting in illumination out of the depth of field of the observation objective.

Lattice light sheet microscopy aims at reducing the intensity of the outer lobes of the Bessel functions by destructive interference.

Practically, the lattice of interfering Bessel beams is engineered by a spatial light modulator (SLM), a liquid-crystal device whose individual pixels can be switched on and off to display a binary pattern.

The Lattice method also has the ability to resolve 200 to 1000 planes per second, an extremely fast imaging rate that allows continuous video capture.

Lattice light sheet microscopy is limited to transparent and thin samples to achieve good image quality.

The reduction of large, out of focus spots allow precise tracking of individual cells at a high molecular density, a capability unattainable through previous microscopy methods.

The advancements of the lattice sheet method revealed three-dimensional movement patterns of actin as well as lamellipodial protrusion in these interactions.

The increase in imaging speed also allowed the observation of fast moving neutrophils through the extracellular matrix in another study[citation needed].

[11] Eric Betzig has stated that his goal is to combine his work on microscopy to develop a "high-speed, high-resolution, low-impact tool that can look deep inside biological systems.