Mapping the brain’s wiring is one of neuroscience’s toughest challenges, limited by slow and costly imaging tools. A new PEEM-based method could speed up whole-brain mapping, deepen our understanding of brain function and disease, and make connectomics accessible to far more researchers.
A worldwide multidisciplinary team consisting of scientists from Diamond Light Source University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Leiden University and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have joined forces to tackle one of the grand challenges in neuroscience: understanding how billions of neurons connect to form the brain’s intricate networks. To do this, the team employed Photoemission Electron Microscopy (PEEM), a more that 50 years-old technique that’s been primarily used to study the magnetic, chemical and electronic properties of materials and according to the authors, could now transform brain mapping. The study, published in PNAS, introduces PEEM as a new tool for connectomics, the field that seeks to chart every connection between neurons. By adapting a surface-science microscope for neuroscience, the team demonstrated that they could image brain tissue at synaptic resolution, hundreds of times faster than conventional techniques.
Read more on the Diamond website