Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jae-Byum Chang

Edward Stuart Boyden

Fei Chen

Karl Kimon Berggren

Caroline Anne Ross

Paul Warren Tillberg

Hong K Choi

Adam F Hannon

The present invention leverages the techniques for expansion microscopy (ExM) to provide improved high-throughput super-resolution whole-organ imaging methodology to image protein architectures over whole organs with nanoscale resolution by using high-throughput microscopes in combination with samples that have been iteratively expanded more than once, in a method referred to herein as 'iterative expansion microscopy' (iExM). In the ExM method, biological samples of interest are permeated with a swellable material that results in the sample becoming embedded in the swellable material, and then the sample can be expanded isotropically in three dimensions The process of iteratively expanding the samples can be applied to samples that have been already expanded using ExM techniques one or more additional times to iteratively expand them such that, for example, a 5-fold expanded specimen can be expanded again 3- to 4-fold, resulting in as much as a 17- to 19-fold or more linear expansion.

Iterative expansion microscopy

This disclosure relates generally to systems and methods of providing standardized topographical configurations for template regions. In one embodiment, a set of array arrangements is selected. Arrays of template structures are then formed on at least one substrate. Each of the arrays is arranged in accordance with an array arrangement in the set of array arrangements such that the arrays correspond surjectively onto the set of array arrangements. After the arrays are formed, a self-assembly material is provided on the arrays. Self-assembly patterns formed by self-assembling material as a result of the arrays may be empirically observed and used to map a set of self-assembly pattern arrangements surjectively onto the set of array arrangements. Using this mapping, a combination of the self-assembly pattern arrangements that match a target pattern arrangement can be used to select a combination of array arrangements from the set of array arrangements for a template region.

Standardized topographical arrangements for template regions that orient self-assembly

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Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Jae-Byum Chang