A novel optical microscope for imaging large embryos and tissue volumes with sub-cellular resolution throughout

For hundreds of years, optical microscopes have allowed living tissues to be studied in fine detail. Unfortunately, the images captured through typical microscope lenses feature a compromise between the level of detail in the image and how much of a sample can be shown. For example, densely packed individual cells often cannot be distinguished in an image that shows an entire mouse embryo. To address this issue, McConnell et al. have developed a microscope lens called the Mesolens. This can magnify samples by up to four times in much higher detail than conventional lenses that produce the same magnification. McConnell et al. tested the Mesolens as part of a technique called confocal microscopy, which can reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of a sample by collecting images from different layers. The resulting images allowed individual cells to be distinguished in cultures of rat brain cells. Furthermore, images of 10–12 day old mouse embryos contained enough detail to reveal many of the structures found inside cells, and allowed the distribution of cells to be tracked in developing organs such as the heart. Ultimately, the Mesolens has the potential to be used in many different applications and could assist in the study of many biological processes. In the future, McConnell et al. will test how effectively the Mesolens works as part of other microscopy techniques.