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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Non-invasive 3D-Visualization with Sub-micron Resolution Using Synchrotron-X-ray-tomography
Published on: May 27, 2008
Ultramicroscopy: 3D reconstruction of large microscopical specimens
K Becker1, N Jährling, E R Kramer
1Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Solid State Electronics, Dept. of Bioelectronics, Floragasse 7, 1040 Vienna, Austria. klaus.becker@meduniwien.ac.at
Abstract:
Ultramicroscopy is a microscopical technique that allows optical sectioning and 3D reconstruction of biological and medical specimens. While in confocal microscopy specimen size is limited to several hundred micrometers at best, using ultramicroscopy even centimeter sized objects like whole mouse embryos can be reconstructed with micrometer resolution. This is possible by using a combination of a clearing procedure and the principle of lightsheet illumination. We present ultramicroscopic 3D reconstructions of whole immunohistochemically labelled mouse embryos and adult Drosophila, giving detailed insight into their anatomy. Its speed and simplicity makes ultramicroscopy ideally suited for high-throughput phenotype screening of transgenic mice and thus will benefit the investigation of disease models.
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