Google Earth for cells lets biologists zoom in

Hal Hodson, technology reporter

(Image: O. Louis Mazzatenta/ National Geographic/Getty)

Think of it as Google Earth for life itself. An entire zebrafish embryo has been mapped down to nanometre resolution, using a new processing technique which combines thousands of electron microscope slides to form a highly detailed image.

A team from Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands built the "virtual slide", using automated image capture and stitching software to combine more than 26000 images into one cohesive picture.

Although virtual slides have been built before, technical hurdles make it hard to build up an image of a large area of tissue, let alone whole organisms. The Dutch team says its approach can be applied to a variety of biological specimens using standard electron microscopes. Other, similar efforts have required customisation.

To handle the challenges of knitting thousands of small images together on any kind of reasonable timescale, the team collected metadata alongside each image, which allowed it to be automatically orientated and matched to neighbouring sections.

The final result is an image which shows details as small as the microvilli in the intestine, and also allows for zoomed-out examination of organs like the liver, brain and eye. The team used the ability to examine details on different scales to show the distribution of different types of mitochondria throughout the zebrafish.

(Image: Williams et al., 2012)

The image has the same scalability as a picture of Russia would if it could be zoomed into to reveal individual football fields.

Journal reference: Journal of Cell Biology, DOI:10.1083/jcb.201201140

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2223d392/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Conepercent0C20A120C0A80Cgoogle0Eearth0Efor0Ecells0Elets0Ebi0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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