The goal of this proposal is to develop instrumentation for 3-D tomographic imaging of whole cells, and macromolecular assemblies in cells, at high-resolution (40-50 nm) using soft X -ray microscopy. This technology will bridge the existing gap between light and electron microscopy. To achieve this goal, three parallel efforts must be pursued: 1) A rapid freezing facility for specimens must be developed; 2) Computer controlled cryogenic sample stages for the x-ray microscope must be built; and 3) Tomographic analysis software must be installed and linked to the acquisition system. Ultimately, we will develop techniques and technology required for performing correlated light and x-ray microscopy on the same specimen. The development of this technology will provide a unique approach for examining fluorescently tagged proteins (i.e. constructs containing variants of green fluorescent protein) in live cells and then examining those same cells at high resolution in the X -ray microscope. Once completed our developments will be made available to the cell, molecular, and developmental biology community. In addition, the steady progress in high repetition rate, high pulse energy laser sources will enable taking this technology to individual laboratories in the near future. This will provide a powerful tool for structure-function analyses of proteins within cells.
| Ekman, Axel A; Chen, Jian-Hua; Guo, Jessica et al. (2017) Mesoscale imaging with cryo-light and X-rays: Larger than molecular machines, smaller than a cell. Biol Cell 109:24-38 |
| Do, Myan; Isaacson, Samuel A; McDermott, Gerry et al. (2015) Imaging and characterizing cells using tomography. Arch Biochem Biophys 581:111-21 |
| Smith, Elizabeth A; Cinquin, Bertrand P; Do, Myan et al. (2014) Correlative cryogenic tomography of cells using light and soft x-rays. Ultramicroscopy 143:33-40 |
| Smith, Elizabeth A; Cinquin, Bertrand P; McDermott, Gerry et al. (2013) Correlative microscopy methods that maximize specimen fidelity and data completeness, and improve molecular localization capabilities. J Struct Biol 184:12-20 |
| McDermott, Gerry; Fox, Douglas M; Epperly, Lindsay et al. (2012) Visualizing and quantifying cell phenotype using soft X-ray tomography. Bioessays 34:320-7 |
| Hanssen, Eric; Knoechel, Christian; Klonis, Nectarios et al. (2011) Cryo transmission X-ray imaging of the malaria parasite, P. falciparum. J Struct Biol 173:161-8 |
| McDermott, Gerry; Le Gros, Mark A; Knoechel, Christian G et al. (2009) Soft X-ray tomography and cryogenic light microscopy: the cool combination in cellular imaging. Trends Cell Biol 19:587-95 |
| Le Gros, M A; McDermott, G; Uchida, M et al. (2009) High-aperture cryogenic light microscopy. J Microsc 235:1-8 |
| Parkinson, Dilworth Y; McDermott, Gerry; Etkin, Laurence D et al. (2008) Quantitative 3-D imaging of eukaryotic cells using soft X-ray tomography. J Struct Biol 162:380-6 |
| Ashcroft, Jared M; Gu, Weiwei; Zhang, Tierui et al. (2008) TiO2 nanoparticles as a soft X-ray molecular probe. Chem Commun (Camb) :2471-3 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 17 publications
