Whole-cell phase contrast imaging at the nanoscale using Fresnel Coherent

X-ray tomography can provide structural information of whole cells in close to their native state.Radiation-induced damage, however, imposes a practical limit to image resolution, and as such, a choicebetween damage, image contrast, and image resolution must be made. New coherent diffractive imagingtechniques,suchFresnelCoherentDiffractiveImaging(FCDI),allowsquantitativephaseinformationwithexceptional dose efficiency, high contrast, and nano-scale resolution. Here we present three-dimensionalquantitative images of a whole eukaryotic cell by FCDI at a spatial resolution below 70 nm with sufficientphase contrast to distinguish major cellular components. From our data, we estimate that the minimumdose required for a similar resolution is close to that predicted by the Rose criterion, considerably belowaccepted estimates of the maximum dose a frozen-hydrated cell can tolerate. Based on the dose efficiency,contrast,andresolutionachieved,weexpectthistechniquewillfindimmediateapplicationsintomographiccellular characterisation.