Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 30, 2026

A 3D Cartographic Description of the Cell by Cryo Soft X-ray Tomography
Published on: March 15, 2021
Self-supervised missing-wedge correction enables accurate cellular morphology and volume reconstruction in soft X-ray
Shao Sen Chueh1, Mary Lopez-Perez2, Charlotte de Ceuninck van Capelle3
1Cell Screening Laboratory, UCD School of Biology & Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4 D04 V1W8, Ireland; SiriusXT Ltd., 9A Holly Avenue, Stillorgan Industrial Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin A94 XY47, Ireland.
Abstract:
Soft X-ray tomography (SXT) bridges the resolution gap between fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy for 3D cellular imaging. However, the missing-wedge artifact from incomplete tilt-series acquisition causes systematic structural elongation, thereby overestimating organelle volumes and compromising quantitative analysis. To address this, we introduce a self-supervised correction model that learns sine-wave trajectories from SXT sinograms to recover unrecorded missing-angle regions, effectively reducing tomographic distortion. We demonstrate significant quantitative improvement, restoring the spherical morphology of 500-nm beads and lipid droplets. When applied to Plasmodium falciparum hemozoin crystals, a key biomarker in antimalarial drug efficacy studies, our model successfully mitigated volume overestimation, achieving up to a 35% reduction in distorted volume. This precision is important for correctly interpreting the mode of action of antimalarial drugs targeting hemozoin crystals.

