Gas cluster ion beam SEM for imaging of large tissue samples with 10 nm isotropic resolution

Nat Methods. 2020 Jan;17(1):68-71. doi: 10.1038/s41592-019-0641-2. Epub 2019 Nov 18.

Abstract

We demonstrate gas cluster ion beam scanning electron microscopy (SEM), in which wide-area ion milling is performed on a series of thick tissue sections. This three-dimensional electron microscopy technique acquires datasets with <10 nm isotropic resolution of each section, and these can then be stitched together to span the sectioned volume. Incorporating gas cluster ion beam SEM into existing single-beam and multibeam SEM workflows should be straightforward, increasing reliability while improving z resolution by a factor of three or more.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / ultrastructure*
  • Cerebral Cortex / ultrastructure*
  • Drosophila melanogaster
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / methods*
  • Tissue Fixation