Seeing both the forest and the trees: Trans-scale scope shows big
picture of tiny targets

Date:
August 20, 2021
Source:
Osaka University
Summary:
Researchers built a microscope system that can image over a million
cells at once. The technology allowed the team to simultaneously
observe the actions of individual cells as well as the global
features of cell populations. This research may significantly
increase the ability of scientists to study rare cellular functions.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Scientists from the Transdimensional Life Imaging Division of the
Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives (OTRI)
at Osaka University created an optical imaging system that can capture
an unprecedented number of cells in a single image. By combining
an ultra-high pixel camera and a huge lens, the team was able to
easily observe exceedingly rare, "one-in-a-million" situations. This
work provides a valuable new tool for the simultaneous observation of centimeter-scale dynamics of multicellular populations with micrometer resolution to see the functions of individual cells.


==========================================================================
In biology, scientists are often interested in the outliers of a
population, such as cells with a rare function that may appear in fewer
than one in a million individuals. These experiments have been hampered
by the inherent tradeoff with microscopes between seeing cells at a
sufficient spatial resolution while still maintaining a large enough
field of view to capture unusual specimens. Scientists often spend
several minutes moving slides in search of just the right cells to study.

Now, a team of scientists led by Osaka University has devised a
system that can produce an image containing up to a million cells at
once. "Conventional biological microscopes can observe at most 1,000
cells, with a field of view limited to a few millimeters. Our setup uses machine vision powered by a high- pixel camera with a macro lens," first
author Taro Ichimura says. The team built the optical imaging system
with a 120-megapixel camera and a telecentric macro lens. This provided
a much larger field of view than conventional microscopes, up to about
one and half by one centimeter, while still resolving individual cells
and the interactions between them that characterize the population. The
team termed the imaging technology "trans-scale scope," which signifies
that the technology can be applied to imaging from the micrometer- scale
to the centimeter-scale. "As a technological singularity for a powerful
cell measurement, our trans-scale scope system AMATERAS is expected
to contribute to a wide range of applications, from basic research
for understanding the operating mechanism of multicellular systems,
to medical applications such as the quality control of artificial cell
sheets," senior author Takeharu Nagai says.

The team tested the AMATERAS by dynamically imaging calcium ions in
cultured cells and successfully detected anomalies that occurred in less
than 0.01% of specimens. This work may accelerate research in a wide range
of fields that deal with large cell populations, such as neuroscience, oncology, and immunology.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Osaka_University. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. T. Ichimura, T. Kakizuka, K. Horikawa, K. Seiriki, A. Kasai, H.

Hashimoto, K. Fujita, T. M. Watanabe, T. Nagai. Exploring
rare cellular activity in more than one million cells by
a transscale scope. Scientific Reports, 2021; 11 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41598-021-95930-7 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210820093420.htm

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