Artificial intelligence speeds up high-resolution microscopy

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur have developed a method for increasing the spatio-temporal resolution in optical microscopy. This method, called ANNA-PALM, is based on recent developments in artificial intelligence and, more specifically, in much-talked-about deep learning. This article explores the method.

"Traditional optical microscopes can be used to distinguish structures in the range of 200 to 300 nm but not smaller. Tinier objects are seen as specks of light under the microscope and their internal structure is not visible. This is the case, for example, with the conical-shaped AIDS virus capsid, or octagonal nuclear pores. In both cases, we can only see blurred spots with a traditional microscope", explains Christophe Zimmer, head of the Imaging and Modeling Unit at the Institut Pasteur. To overcome this resolution issue, "super-resolution" microscopy methods were developed, such as the PALM and STORM techniques, which appeared in 2006 and are based on single-molecule localization. These methods can resolve structures down to the 20 nm range but are extremely slow."

Find out more

Read the interview with Christophe Zimmer "Artificial intelligence: deep learning is blazing ahead"