Fluorescence microscopy is a central tool for investigation of molecular structures and dynamics that take place in biological cells and tissues. Coupled with progress in labeling methods that highlight molecules and features of interest, these microscopes permit observation of biological structures and processes with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. Such microscopes are vital tools in development of our understanding of the functioning of cells, tissues and organisms, with benefits ranging from better understanding of the nature of life to enabling medical advances.
These microscopes have been enabled by the engineering development of diverse optical systems that provide different capabilities for the imaging toolkit. However, all of these methods can suffer from the effects of the variable optical properties of biological specimens. The optical distortions – or aberrations – introduced by these specimens blur the images, reducing image contrast and resolution, which limits the range of applications. Adaptive optics (AO) methods were originally developed for astronomical telescopes, in order to compensate for the blurring effects of turbulence in the atmosphere. More recently, they have been developed to overcome aberration problems in microscopes, recovering the optimal imaging performance. This technology has always shown promise to improve virtually all types of research or commercial microscopes. This project addressed several significant challenges that were limiting the potential of adaptive optics to be widely implemented in routine imaging.
The AdOMiS project concerned the development of a next generation of adaptive optics technology for microscopes. Many previous advances have been made through development of bespoke AO solutions to individual imaging tasks. However, the diversity of microscopy methods meant that individual solutions were often not translatable to other systems. This project involved the creation of theoretical and practical frameworks that tied together AO concepts and provided a suite of scientific tools with broad application. This systems approach encompassed theoretical modelling, optical engineering and the requirements of biological applications.
The new technology developed in this project enabled deeper imaging inside specimens, so that microscopes could image more of a specimen. It enabled faster imaging – through improved efficiency, it was possible to observe fast biological processes in greater detail. It provided improvement to super-resolution microscopes – these super-resolution methods reveal details that are too small to detect in a conventional microscope, but their sensitivity to aberrations limits their application; adaptive optics improved the performance of these methods to make them more broadly applicable.
