Courtney Johnson of the Welsher lab has developed a new strategy for improving the speed of laser scanning microscopy. The technique, called 3D Fast Acquisition Scan by z-Translating Raster (3D-FASTR), uses an electrically tunable lens (ETL) to generate a reproducible 3D sparse sampling pattern which fully and efficiently scans a volume in the fastest possible time without repeating until the volume is complete. This method has shown a 4-fold improvement in the volumetric imaging rate of live cells. The theory underlying 3D-FASTR is completely general and can be applied to any scanning imaging method. Find details in the recent issue of Optics Express!
Chemistry
