MRI: Development of an Active/Adaptive Scanning Laser Microscope

蒙大拿州立大学获得了一个奖项，以开发一种扫描激光显微镜，该显微镜结合了快速主动聚焦控制和自适应像差校正，可以在厚的活组织或完整的动物体内提供高质量的三维显微图像。 完整组织的光学显微镜，加上荧光标记的爆炸性进展，可以遗传编码到特定的细胞类型和结构，是一个令人难以置信的强大工具，为基础研究生物发育和功能。然而，为了实现这种方法的潜力，有必要提高深部组织成像技术的空间和时间分辨率。完整组织的显微镜检查由于在样品深处的光束焦点的劣化而遭受低分辨率、低对比度和差效率。新的显微镜使用两种类型的变形镜来控制焦深和图像质量。除了新的显微镜光学器件外，该项目还开发了必要的控制算法和用户界面，以创建一种用于发育生物学和神经科学研究和研究培训的仪器。拟议的仪器将促进研究，解决有关神经系统如何发展和功能的基本问题。虽然该项目是专门构建一个扫描激光显微镜，但其基础技术可以在未来为宽视场显微镜带来许多相同的好处。主动和自适应光学器件还有其他潜在的应用，包括小型相机和内窥镜以及能够在不移动透镜的情况下进行高速聚焦和像差校正的光学数据存储读/写头。因此，这项技术具有广泛的相关性。除了其科学影响，该项目还包括研究和教育的整合，培训两名工程研究生，并为几名本科工程和生物科学学生提供跨学科的研究经验。将开发一个新的课程模块，以主动/自适应显微镜为平台，教授先进的生物光子方法。

An award is made to Montana State University to develop a scanning laser microscope that incorporates fast active focus control and adaptive aberration correction to provide high-quality three-dimensional microscopic images within thick living tissue or intact animals. Optical microscopy of intact tissues, coupled with the explosive advance of fluorescent markers that can be genetically encoded to specific cell types and structures, is an incredibly powerful tool for fundamental research into biological development and function. To realize the potential of this approach, however, it is necessary to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of deep-tissue imaging techniques. Microscopy of intact tissue suffers from low resolution, low contrast and poor efficiency due to deterioration of the beam focus deep in the specimen. The new microscope uses two types of deformable mirrors to control both the depth of focus and the quality of the images produced. In addition to the new microscope optics, the project also develops the necessary control algorithms and user interface to create an instrument that will be devoted to both research and research training in developmental biology and neuroscience. The proposed instrument will facilitate research that is addressing fundamental questions about how nervous systems develop and function. While the project is specifically constructing a scanning laser microscope, the underlying technology can bring many of the same benefits to wide-field microscopes in the future. Active and adaptive optics have other potential applications, including small-format cameras and endoscopes and optical data storage read/write heads capable of high-speed focus and aberration correction with no moving lenses. The technology is therefore broadly relevant. In addition to its scientific impact the project embraces integration of research and education, training two engineering graduate students and providing cross-disciplinary research experience for several undergraduate engineering and bioscience students. A new course module will be developed that features the active/adaptive microscope as a platform to teach advanced biophotonic methods.