Expansion microscopy

TitleExpansion microscopy
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsChen, F, Tillberg, PW, Boyden, ES
JournalScience
Volume347
Issue6221
Pagination543-548
Date Published01/30/2015
ISSN0036-8075
Abstract

In optical microscopy, fine structural details are resolved by using refraction to magnify images of a specimen. We discovered that, by synthesizing a swellable polymer network within a specimen, it can be physically expanded, resulting in physical magnification. By covalently anchoring specific labels located within the specimen directly to the polymer network, labels spaced closer than the optical diffraction limit can be isotropically separated and optically resolved, a process we call expansion microscopy (ExM). Thus, this process can be used to perform scalable super-resolution microscopy with diffraction-limited microscopes. We demonstrate ExM with apparent ~70 nm lateral resolution in both cultured cells and brain tissue, performing three-color super-resolution imaging of ~107 μm3 of the mouse hippocampus with a conventional confocal microscope.

URLhttp://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1260088
DOI10.1126/science.1260088
Short TitleScience

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