Development of high-speed SICM for biological applications.

扫描离子电导显微镜（SICM）是英国首创的技术，它可以在溶液下对活细胞表面进行高分辨率成像，以显示那些很小的结构，只有在固定细胞时才能使用电子显微镜检测到。它可以用来跟踪细胞膜重要过程中细胞动力学的变化，如分子或病毒的进入或退出，以及信号传导过程中细胞膜的重组。然而，由于获取图像所需的时间，SICM的应用受到了限制。如果有可能更快地成像，那么就有可能第一次跟踪一些关键的生物过程，并观察到其他重要生物过程的更多细节。为了做到这一点，我们的目标是重新设计仪器，利用原子力显微镜的改进来获得高速图像，并利用高速计算机板来控制仪器。重新设计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.