Development of high-speed SICM for biological applications.

扫描离子电导显微镜（SICM）已率先在英国成像活细胞的表面，在溶液中，在高分辨率可视化结构是如此之小，他们只能使用电子显微镜检测，当细胞被固定。它可用于跟踪细胞膜重要过程中的细胞动力学变化，例如分子或病毒的进入或离开以及信号传导期间细胞膜的重组。然而，由于获得图像所需的时间，SICM的应用受到限制。如果能够更快地成像，那么就有可能首次跟踪一些关键的生物过程，并观察其他重要生物过程的更多细节。要做到这一点，我们的目标是重新设计的仪器，利用原子力显微镜已取得的改进，以获得高速图像和高速计算机板的进步，以控制仪器。重新签名的仪器将在测试样品上进行优化，然后最终在活细胞上进行演示。

Scanning ion conductance microscopy(SICM) has been pioneered in the UK to image the surface of live cells , under solution, at high resolution to visualize structures that are so small that they are only detectable using an electron microscope, when the cells are fixed. It can be used to follow changes in cell dynamics during important processes at the cell membrane such as the entry or exit of molecules or viruses and the reorganisation of the cell membrane during signalling. However the application of SICM has been limited due to the time it takes to obtain an image. If it was possible to image faster then it would be possible to follow, for the first time, some key biological processes and observe many more details of other important biological processes. To do this we aim to redesign the instrument taking advantage of improvements that have been made to atomic force microscopy to obtain high speed images and advances in high speed computer boards to control the instrument. The redsigned instrument will be optimised on test samples and then finally demonstrated on live cells.