histology Archives

X-ray histotomography: Characterising every cell of a whole organism

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Histology is a powerful technique to study thin slices of tissue samples.

Histology is a powerful technique used to distinguish normal and abnormal cells and tissue. In practice, only a small sampling of thin, 2-dimensional slices is readily available for diagnosis. In contrast, micro-CT allows full-volume, 3-dimensional (3D) imaging of biological samples. By optimising micro-CT, a multidisciplinary team led by Dr Keith Cheng from Pennsylvania State University created X-ray histotomography, a technique […]

Capturing three-dimensional cell structure with X-ray tomography

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The research team uses a 3D X-ray microscope to visualise cells and tissues.

Seeing cells is no easy task. Most cells are smaller than a tenth of the size of a human hair, making them impossible to see by eye. Optical microscopes, with the help of cell-staining to colour cells, can help us peer into the invisible world of cells. However, they only show us a 2D image of a very thin slice […]