Patent Application: US-201415030850-A

Abstract:
the present invention relates to a method of processing images captured following structured illumination of a sample , the method comprising the steps of : identifying emission spots within each captured image ; verifying the emission spots ; and reconstructing an enhanced image of the sample from the emission spots . the method may comprise identifying only in focus emission spots . by identifying and processing only in focus spots , whether or not they are centred on expected illumination positions , improvements in resolution can be achieved compared to known sim methods . in particular , by suitable selection of in focus spots , significant improvements in lateral and axial resolution can be achieved .

Description:
in order that the invention may be more clearly understood an embodiment thereof will now be described , by way of example only , with reference to the accompanying drawings , of which : fig1 shows a schematic illustration of an apparatus for structured illumination microscopy ( sim ) suitable for use in the present invention ; fig2 a - 2 g illustrate the application of the processing technique of the present invention to a an image of a uniformly fluorescent sample acquired using sim ; fig3 provides a comparative illustration of the results achieved with the method of the present invention contrasted with those achieved by prior art methods ; fig4 a - 4 g provide a comparative illustration of the increased axial resolution in the results achieved using the methods and apparatus of the present invention ; fig5 a - 5 c provide a comparative illustration of the increase in lateral resolution in the results achieved using the methods and apparatus of the present invention ; fig6 a - 6 b illustrate the use of the imaging method of the present invention to generate images using emissions at two different wavelengths ; and fig7 a - 7 d provide an illustration of the use of the present invention to investigate temporal variation within an imaged area . turning to fig1 , an apparatus 10 for structured illumination microscopy ( sim ) is shown . the apparatus comprises a pulsed femtosecond mi tai laser 11 operable to generate a series of laser pulses . the laser pulses are directed on to a specimen 12 via an optical arrangement comprising achromatic half - wave plate λ / 2 ; plain mirrors m 1 - m 10 ; tube lens tl and objective microscope 13 . the laser pulses are steered by a pair of acousto - optic deflectors aodx , aody so as to sequentially illuminate a series of sparsely separated points on to a specimen 12 , the illumination points typically being arranged in an n × n grid pattern . nevertheless , it is possible for alternative illumination patterns to simple grids . it is also possible that the illumination area can have a regular , complex or irregular shape as required or desired . in order to compensate for temporal and spatial dispersion of the laser pulses , an acousto - optic modulator aom is provided within the optical arrangement . the arrangement may optionally have additional compensation optics to correct for temporal and spatial dispersion of the laser beam . as a result of the illumination , the specimen will emit light which is collected by the microscope objective 13 and directed to image sensors including photomultiplier tubes pmt and a camera 14 . in the present example , the camera is a scmos camera , but the skilled man will appreciate that alternative cameras or detectors may be used if appropriate . the photomultiplier tubes pmt allow the apparatus to be utilised for alternative detection modes other than those according to the present invention . the camera 14 is operable to capture a series of images , each image of the emission resulting from one illumination of the illumination pattern . in use , the aods are used to scan sequences of sparsely separated points in a grid pattern . the camera 14 is operable to capture an image of the emission resulting from one illumination of the grid pattern . the grid is then shifted sequentially and a further image captured , so that the entire field of view is eventually covered . in the present invention each image in the sequence is processed according to the method described with respect to fig2 to generate an enhanced image . a sequence of enhanced images is then combined to generate a composite image . for an n × n grid requiring the laser beam to be rastered p times to complete the illumination , a stack of p 2 images required to be processed to generate a composite image . for example , a grid with 16 points on each axis required 16 2 = 256 separate frames for one super - resolution image . turning now to fig2 , this illustrates the method applied to a single image resulting from a single illumination of a uniformly fluorescent specimen 12 using an 8 × 8 grid . in fig2 a , the captured image comprises a grid of 8 × 8 emission spots . spots can be identified and located using one of several algorithms previously developed for stochastic or fluctuation analysis based super - resolution methods [ 10 ]. a number of such algorithms are contained in a package developed for use in igor pro called localizer [ 11 ]. light from a diffraction - limited point source will form a spot with a 2d gaussian distribution with a point - spread function ( psf ) defined by the optics of the microscope . if the psf of the microscope is known , then light that originates from the point of focus will have a known diameter and this can be used to inform the spot identification routine to identify light that is precisely in focus and discard light that is not . spots that do not satisfy the requirement of these routines are excluded from further processing . by varying the diameter of the psf used above , the present process can effectively vary the axial resolution of the images . in particular , a generalized likelihood ratio test ( glrt ) is used to identify spots having a signal to noise ratio above a threshold level ( fig2 b ) and an estimate of the standard deviation of the psf of the microscope 13 ( psf sd ) is used to identify spots ( fig2 d ) that are in focus . in more detail , spot identification may be performed according to methods adapted from serge et al ., ( 2008 ), using a two - dimensional gaussian approximating the psf of the microscope . an optimal detection test , such as a generalized likelihood ratio test ( glrt ) is first applied to identify gaussian peaks in each image . the image intensity is analysed in a sliding window in which the respective probabilities of particle presence ( h1 ) or absence ( h0 ) are compared , taking into account the image noise : targets are identified by the h1 / h0 ratio . this ratio is high when peaks are significantly separated from noise . two parameters are required for detection of peaks . these are a window size of n × n pixels and a false alarm rate ( pfapeak ). the window size should be optimised to ensure a correct estimation of the background while limiting possible long - range background variations . the accuracy of the decision is set by fixing a constant false alarm rate . the pfapeak is independent of the intensity and background , and consequently of the experimental image acquisitions . following this initial binary identification , the intensity , subpixel position , width and offset of identified spots can then need to be estimated ( fig2 c ). one of several methods can be used . a particularly suitable method is the use of nonlinear curve fitting of a symmetric gaussian , with a fixed standard deviation . various filtering tests can be used to remove putative aberrant points . such methods allow the centre of the spot to be identified with a high degree of accuracy allowing further processing to improve the lateral ( xy ) resolution . the advantage of this algorithm based detection approach is that it is not necessary to know the precise location of each spot in advance . the disadvantage is that the method may miss weakly fluorescent spots that are still in focus . in such cases , it is possible to use the coordinates of spots previously located using a uniformly fluorescent sample or to predict the position of weakly fluorescent spots . the centre coordinates for each spot are used to generate a sub - image ( fig2 e ) concentric with each identified spot . to each subimage is then applied a digital pinhole in the form of a two dimensional gaussian mask of known standard deviation ( fig2 . subsequent to the application of the gaussian mask , each subimage is scaled by a factor of two ( fig2 g ). the subimages are then placed back into a blank image at their original centre coordinates ( fig2 h ) to provide an enhanced image . combining a series of enhanced images allows a composite super - resolution image to be generated . three key parameters were used to define the final image . the glrt threshold and an estimate of the standard deviation of the psf of the microscope 13 ( psf sd ) were used to identify and locate spots . the psf sd was generally the same for a particular objective and spot separation although this parameter may be iteratively adjusted along with the glrt threshold to optimise spot detection . spot separation was crucial . reducing the distance between spots in a single frame allows fewer frames per super - ramp image : if the spots are too close together , they cannot be easily resolved ; and if the spots are too far apart , then the improvement in single point resolution leaves the final image granular with gaps between points . the ideal spot separation may be found iteratively to ensure good identification and reduced granularity . the third key parameter that defines the final image quality is the standard deviation of the 2d gaussian mask which defines the size of the “ digital pinhole ” and hence the resolution of the final image . decreasing the value of the standard deviation enhances spot resolution but can lead to granularity of the final images if the spot separation is too large . turning now to fig3 , the upper images show maximum projections of a pollen grain comparing standard multi - photon images ( left ) and equivalent composite images generated according to the method of the present invention ( right ). shown immediately below for comparison are sections taken at various depths ( 7 μm , 19 μm , 37 μm & amp ; 63 μm ) using standard multi - photon images ( left ) and equivalent composite images generated according to the method of the present invention ( right ). in the images of fig3 , the horizontal and vertical scale bars shown each represent 20 μm . as can be seen there is a clear increase in image resolution achieved by the present invention when compared to standard multi - photon imaging techniques . fig4 a provides an illustration of how the images obtained using prior art methods 41 , 42 compare with equivalent images generated according to the method of the present invention 43 , 44 . the images 41 , 43 show a top - down perspective view of the object imaged . the images 42 , 44 show a side perspective view of the object imaged . as can be seen there is a clear increase in the lateral and axial resolution of the image achieved by the present invention when compared to standard multi photon imaging techniques . fig4 b shows a quantitative illustration of the increase in resolution obtained when applying gaussian masks of varying standard deviation . values below the dotted line show super - resolution . gaussian masks with sds ranging from 5 pixels to 0 . 2 pixels were examined . it is shown that the full width at half - maximum ( fwhm ) decreases with a reduction in the standard deviation ( sd ) of the gaussian mask applied . a narrower fwhm correlates to an improved resolution and a 2 . 8 fold improvement in axial resolution is produced compared to standard multi photon imaging techniques . this pattern is observed when reducing the sd value to 1 . 6 . turning to fig5 a , it can be seen that the image achieved by prior art techniques 51 has a poorer resolution than the image achieved after the application of various gaussian masks 52 , 53 , 54 . decreasing the sd value of the gaussian mask produced a marked increase in lateral resolution . this can be seen by reviewing the image obtained by prior art techniques and noting that two separate bright spots cannot be identified whereas upon the application of a gaussian mask , they can . fig5 b and 5 c show a quantitative illustration of the increased resolution achieved by the present invention . fig5 b shows a profile across the corresponding images shown in fig5 a . it is seen that in the profile across the image obtained by prior art techniques 51 only shows the presence of a single peak , i . e . one object . the profiles across the images achieved after applying a gaussian mask shows two separate peaks and hence the identification of two objects in the image . the fwhm of the profiles obtained reduce with decreasing sd values . this is illustrated further in fig5 a where two bright spots can be more easily identified with lower sd values but are unidentifiable in the image achieved using prior art techniques 51 . fig5 c illustrates how the fwhm varies as a function of the sd value of the gaussian mask applied . it can be seen that below sd values of 1 . 6 , the fwhm is narrower than the theoretical limit ( illustrated by dashed line 52 ). there is also provided a fwhm value obtained in images achieved by prior art techniques which is and it can be seen that there is a significant improvement in resolution ( reduction in fwhm value ) using gaussian masks below an sd value of 5 . 0 . it can also be seen that the lower the sd value , the greater the improvement in resolution and using gaussian masks of sd value less than 1 . 6 can provide images with a resolution greater than the theoretical limit . whilst the images in the examples above were generated using emission spots at a single wavelength , it is also possible to implement multicolour imaging . this is of particular use where a sample has relatively broad absorption or emission spectra or where two or more fluorescent substances with differing absorbtion or emission spectra are used simultaneously . in order to achieve two colour imaging with two emission wavelengths , filters may be used . alternatively and preferably , an emission splitter ( not shown ) may be used to separate each emission colour onto separate regions of camera 14 . in this context , scmos cameras are particularly suitable due to their large chip size . multicolour image alignment is made easier with super resolution imaging according to the present invention ( super - ramp ) because the two or more colour images are collected simultaneously but they still have to be separated and aligned accurately . the present invention can operate between ˜ 750 and 920 nm which is within the range for activation of a large range of fluorophores including fluorescent proteins . therefore , it is possible to distinguish multiple fluorophores either by changing the activation wavelength or by separating on the basis of emission wavelength . turing now to fig6 a and 6 b , two colour imaging according to the present invention is illustrated . a pollen grain was activated at 780 nm and emission wavelengths of 505 - 540 nm and 690 - 740 nm collected simultaneously on an scmos camera . sections were taken over an axial distance of 20 μm . green and red pairs of images at each position were constructed and then split , aligned and merged using identical settings . standard multiphoton images are shown in panel a ) and images obtained using the present invention are shown in panel b ). the scale bar represents 5 μm . underneath are examples of images taken at z positions 1 and 10 μm . whilst the above example relates to a single activation wavelength and multiple emission wavelengths , it is also possible for the present invention to use multiple activation wavelengths for single colour or multicolour imaging . the method may be used to monitor variation in specimens due to the application of differing conditions ( including but not limited to variations in temperature , chemical exposure , electrical or magnetic stimulation or the like ). this can be achieved by using fluorescent sensors or fluorescent compounds that alter their fluorescent properties dynamically , such as fluorescent calcium , voltage or ph sensors and generating images of specimens obtained under these differing conditions and comparing said images . typically , this would involve subtracting one image from the other or comparing images collected simultaneously with a spectrally distinct reference fluorophore that was unresponsive to the sensed compound . it is also possible for individual images within a sequence used to generate a composite images to be compared . this can allow temporal variation within the imaged sample to be monitored . where composite images generated under differing conditions are compared , individual images within each sequence may be compared to illustrate the different temporal variations caused by the differing conditions . turning now to fig7 a - 7 d , an example of comparing images generated under differing initial conditions is shown . in fig7 a , the specimen is a whole cell , patch clamped and filled with a fluorescent calcium indicator . subsequently , pairs of concurrent image stacks were generated using the method of the present invention to illustrate the effects of stimulation and difference images produced to show the spatial changes in calcium - dependent fluorescence . no electrical stimulation was applied during the first control stack ( ctrl ). a burst of 10 stimuli ( stim ) was applied during the second . mean projections ( top ) and images according to the present invention ( bottom ) were constructed and the images before and during stimulation subtracted to show the difference in fluorescence ( diff ). the scale bar represents 2 μm . the images obtained using the present invention revealed clear spines , spine necks and underlying dendrites and that increases in fluorescence were largely restricted to spine heads . in fig7 b , equivalent images to fig7 a are shown for an area including the soma and proximate dendrite where no calcium response was observed . the scale bar represents 10 μm . the images obtained using the present invention in fig7 a and 7 b enable the identification of the precise location of spines , underlying dendrite as well as inactive regions including distant dendrites and the soma . for example , the standard multiphoton images in fig7 b illustrate generalised increases in calcium in both spiny and dendritic regions although it is not possible to establish precisely where the changes occurred . these images clearly illustrate that increases occurred in predominantly in spines . moreover , the enhanced lateral and axial resolution provided by the images according to the present invention revealed that calcium increases that appeared to originate from the dendrite actually came from spines that were protruding above the dendrite . as shown in fig7 c it is possible to extract measurements of the change in calcium over time from clearly identified spines or underlying dendrites . measurements were obtained from regions of interest placed over identified spines and dendrites and changes in fluorescence in the absence of stimulation subtracted from those taken during stimulation , the resulting difference plotted over time . as successive frames used to generate the images in the present invention were taken at 60 ms intervals , a temporal measurement of calcium over time at a rate of 16 . 6 data points per second can be obtained . as illustrated by fig7 d , the peak increase from active spines was significantly bigger than that from supporting dendrites (* p & lt ; 0 . 05 ; students t test ). the above embodiments are described by way of example only . many variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims . 1 . abbe , e . beitrage zur theorie des mikroskops and der mikroskopischen wahrnehmung . arch . f . mikroskop . anat . 9 , 413 - 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