Lensless fluorescence microscope for in vivo imaging

Microscopes are essential tools in the life sciences and have found their way into clinical settings. Doctors use them to examine the eyes, detect cancerous tissues, and even assist in surgical procedures. However, traditional microscopes are bulky, limiting their ability to image internal body areas. Additionally, optical lenses often struggle to provide both a wide field of view and high resolution simultaneously.

To address these limitations, researchers at Rice University have developed a lens-free microscope that is compact and can be mounted on an endoscope for internal imaging. This innovation allows for long-term monitoring of brain activity and opens up new possibilities in medical imaging that were previously unattainable due to the size of conventional microscopes.

The wide-area fluorescence microscope created by the Rice team can capture detailed images of a few cubic millimeters with micrometer-level resolution. Moreover, the field of view can be expanded simply by using a larger sensor, which is feasible since the system uses a standard CMOS detector.

To produce clear and high-quality images, the device uses an "amplitude mask" — a specially designed diffraction grating. The sensor captures light through this mask, which appears different from the actual object being imaged. An algorithm then processes the data to reconstruct a high-resolution image based on the information captured by the amplitude mask.

Because the device creates focused images within a specific range, it enables the generation of 3D images within a small volume of a few cubic millimeters. This advancement could revolutionize real-time biological imaging and offer new insights into cellular and neural activities.