Professor Hyuk-Sang Kwon's research team develops a light-sheet microscope capable of direct lateral photography
□ Professor Hyuk-Sang Kwon of the Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST, President Seung Hyeon Moon) has developed a new optical microscope technique that produces three-dimensional images in a series of light-sheets * that are formed on the side, rather than a typical video plane.
* Light-sheet: thin, wide, paper-like optical plane with cylindrical lens
□ This achievement makes it possible to acquire high-speed 3D images at the cellular level in large-sized living tissue, organisms, and small animals, which could not be photographed with conventional light-sheet microscopes.
∘ The conventional laser scanning microscope * was limited in shortening the image acquisition time, and the light-sheet microscope developed as an alternative technique made by moving the sample into an excited state *. Although high-speed shooting is possible, there are disadvantages in that the shape and size of the sample that can be observed were limited because two objective lenses are vertically disposed around the sample.
* Excited states = Excited states
* Laser Scanning Microscope: Focusing light on the focal spot, fluorescence excitation of the spot, and point-scanning to create plane and volume images.
□ The newly developed microscope is a hybrid technology that combines the advantages of a light-sheet microscope and a laser scanning microscope by using only one objective lens for fluorescence excitation and detection like a laser scanning microscope. It is possible to obtain a high-speed three-dimensional image similar to a conventional light-sheet microscope.
□ The researchers irradiated the light-sheet with a two-photon Bezel beam * at an angle and imaged it. In general, it is known that an oblique image plane cannot be taken directly because the focal distance does not match. The oblique excitation plane was replicated in the remote focus area, and then the oblique plane excited by the sharp oblique mirror was focused on the camera image plane to overcome this problem.
∘ In addition, the light-sheet was scanned within the volume of the sample by the original refraction scanning method, enabling the three-dimensional photographing without physical movement of the sample, thereby greatly increasing the imaging speed.
* 2-Photon Bezel Beam: Bezel Beam is a thin and long stick-like interference beam that can be scanned at high speed to make a light-sheet. In this case, by using a two-photon excitation phenomenon, a vessel-beam light-sheet can be formed to form a thinner light-scattering sheet.
□ Professor Hyuk-Sang Kwon said, "The results of this research are expected to be used as a key imaging technique for functional biological phenomena research and that the light-sheet microscope, which is currently widely used in life phenomenon identification research, can be used for various biomedical imaging."
