Lens-free holographic microscopy (left) and scanning optical microscope (right) of a 200-micron thick mouse brain sampleZHANG ET AL., SCI ADV, 3:E1700553, 2017. A novel imaging technique allows researchers to peer through thick, three-dimensional tissues using a holographic microscope and economical, easily transported tools, according to a study published today (August 11) in Science Advances. The tissue preparation and imaging protocol is meant to serve as an alternative to costlier techniques that aren’t easily accessible in resource-starved areas.

The researchers demonstrated the utility of their technique on a slice of a mouse brain, 200 microns (0.2 millimeters) in thickness. First, they made their tissue sample see-through using a tweaked version of the CLARITY tissue-clearing method, which removes lipids within tissue, then applied a stain to visualize brain cells. The researchers placed their sample near an image-sensing chip, which digitally acquired a focused, 3-D image. Traditional techniques, on the other...

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They verified their reconstructed images by comparing them to those obtained by a scanning optical microscope. This test confirmed that the lens-free technique can be used to create a more-focused image.

“We believe that this CLARITY-enabled computational tissue imaging technique could find numerous applications in biomedical diagnosis and research in low-resource settings,” the authors write.

Diagnosing diseases that leave their mark on the body’s tissues, like cancer, often requires tissue biopsies. But the tools and expertise required to process such tissues can be expensive and is not widely available, especially in developing areas. “The high cost of equipment and the lack of trained health care professionals may result in delays in diagnosis,” the authors write in their report. 

Depiction of the lens-free imaging set up OZCAN RESEARCH GROUP AT UCLA

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