Scanning microscopy builds digital embryo

JANUARY 26, 2009--A high-speed fluorescence imaging technique is building up a time-lapse picture of how the cells in an embryo develop during their first 24 hours. A technique known as digital scanned laser light sheet fluorescence microscopy (DSLM) is allowing researchers in Germany to record and track how a zebrafish embryo develops over its first 24 hours.

The high-speed technique captures around 400,000 images over this time period, creating what the team calls a digital embryo. The idea behind DSLM is to generate a sheet of laser light a few microns in diameter and then use a scanner to move this sheet vertically and horizontally through the specimen to create a 3-D image. The fluorescence generated along each line is collected by a high-speed camera system. For more information, go to: http://optics.org/cws/article/research/36272