In a recent study, a new approach, Serial Two-Photon Tomography (STP tomography), was successfully used for whole brain imaging. The approach includes dividing brain tissue into sections and then acquires images for each one sequentially using two-photon microscopes.
This approach was successfully tested by a team lead by Associate Professor. Pavel Osten. The team included researchers from CSHL lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Osten said "the new technology should greatly facilitate the systematic study of neuroanatomy in mouse models of human brain disorders such as schizophrenia and autism."
Serial Two-Photon Tomography was designed by Cambridge, Mass. based TissueVision. More about STP tomography appears online in the Nature Methods. Two-photon imaging is a 3D imaging technology used in biology laboratories. This technology can be modified to illuminate a certain type of cells. This type of imaging has high optical penetration power than that provided by traditional microscopy.
As Osten explains, STP tomography achieves high-throughput fluorescence imaging of whole mouse brains via robotic integration of the two fundamental steps -- tissue sectioning and fluorescence imaging.
