New Microscope Obliviates Trade-Off Between Depth of Field and Spatial Resolution

Engineers at Rice University have created a new microscope that they say can get around the trade-off between depth-of-field (DOF) and spatial resolution and quickly and inexpensively image large tissue sections with cellular resolution. It also will reportedly allow surgeons to inspect the margins of tumors within minutes of their removal. DeepDOF, a deep learning extended depth-of-field microscope, is described in a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Current methods to prepare tissue for margin status evaluation during surgery have not changed significantly since first introduced over 100 years ago," said study co-author Ann Gillenwater, M.D. "By bringing the ability to accurately assess margin status to more treatment sites, the DeepDOF has potential to improve outcomes for cancer patients treated with surgery."

DeepDOF uses a standard optical microscope in combination with an inexpensive optical phase mask costing less than $10 to image whole pieces of tissue and deliver depths-of-field as much as five times greater than today's state-of-the-art microscopes.

"Traditionally, imaging equipment like cameras and microscopes are designed separately from imaging processing software and algorithms," said study co-lead author Yubo Tang. "DeepDOF is one of the first microscopes that's designed with the post-processing algorithm in mind."