Research team presents optimized soft X‑ray tomography for rapid whole-cell imaging
Viral pathogens such as the SARS-CoV‑2 coronavirus modify the internal structure of the cells they infect. These changes take place at the level of the individual cell components, the organelles, and can provide information about how viral diseases develop.
"Scanning electron microscopes are preferred in cell imaging because they provide very sharp images at the nanoscale," explains Venera Weinhardt, a postdoctoral researcher at Centre for Organismal Studies at Heidelberg University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, USA. "However, this technology can take up to one week to scan a single cell.”
A German-American research team led by Dr. Venera Weinhardt at COS and in collaboration with Hector Fellow Ralf Bartenschlager has optimized a special X‑ray technique called soft X‑ray tomography to provide high-resolution three-dimensional images of whole cells and their molecular structure within minutes.
“A high speed is enormously important in order to be able to examine a large number of cells”, emphasizes molecular virologist Prof. Dr. Ralf Bartenschlager, who works with his department at Heidelberg University Hospital together with Dr. Weinhardt on the imaging of infection-associated changes in cells.
The researchers are now working on further refining the techniques for sample preparation, automating the analysis of the three-dimensional image data and developing the laboratory version of a soft X‑ray microscope.
Congratulations to Ralf Bartenschlager!