Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 2: New Technologies

BP 2.7: Talk

Monday, March 22, 2010, 12:15–12:30, H43

Quantitative biological imaging by ptychographic x-ray diffraction microscopy — •Klaus Giewekemeyer¹, Pierre Thibault², Sebastian Kalbfleisch¹, André Beerlink¹, Cameron M. Kewish³, Martin Dierolf², Franz Pfeiffer², and Tim Salditt¹ — ¹Institut für Röntgenphysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany — ²Department Physik (E17), Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany — ³Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

Mesoscopic structues with specific functions are abundant in many cellular systems and have been well characterized by electron microscopy in the past. However, the quantitative study of the three-dimensional structure and density of subcellular components remains a difficult problem.

In this contribution we show how these limitations could be overcome in the future by the application of recently introduced and now rapidly evolving coherent x-ray imaging techniques for quantitative biological imaging on the nanoscale. More specifically, we report on a recent scanning (ptychographic) diffraction experiment on unstained and unsliced freeze-dried cells of the bacterium Deinococcus radiourans using only a pinhole as beam defining optical element [1]. As a result quantitative density projections well below optical resolution have been achieved. [1] Giewekemeyer et al. PNAS (2009), in press.