Lensless Imaging of Whole Biological Cells with Soft X-Rays

A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has used X-ray diffraction microscopy to make images of whole yeast cells, achieving the highest resolution–11 to 13 nanometers (billionths of a meter)–ever obtained with this method for biological specimens. Resolutions like this were previously only possible to achieve with an electron microscope, but electron microscopy is limited to very thin samples, a few hundred nanometers or less. Lensless X-ray diffraction microscopy produces a high-resolution diffraction pattern from noncrystalline structures like the membranes and organelles of a cell, by using laser-like, coherent light having all the same frequency and phase. The computer converts these patterns into an image of the cell. The researchers expect that full 3-D tomography of whole cells at equivalent resolution should soon be possible.
Press statement: Lensless Imaging of Whole Biological Cells with Soft X-Rays…