Correlative Microscopy

The term “correlative microscopy” refers to the application of two or more imaging techniques to an identical sample, and at the exact same position, with the aim to combine the benefits of each respective technique. It has become state of the art technology in biomedical research.

The majority of correlative microscopy applications are variations of what has become known as “CLEM,” i.e., correlative light and electron microscopy. Light and electron microscopy are routinely used in the field of life sciences. Light microscopy (LM) is an indispensable tool for biomedical research due to its time-resolving imaging capabilities and its ability to visualize individual proteins by means of immunofluorescence, or genetically encoded tagging. Electron microscopy (EM) perfectly complements LM, inasmuch as it visualizes a structure of interest at the nm-scale, and within its ultrastructural context.

The appropriate combination of imaging modalities has to be defined specifically for every new project. Here, the range of microscopy techniques available at ScopeM allows to tailor a solution for basically every question to be addressed by means of microscopy, be it on the cellular level, for smaller organisms, tissue specimens, or plants; at room temperature or cryogenic temperatures; for two-dimensional or three-dimensional imaging.

• See the example volume SEM for three-dimensional imaging
  
• See examples for CLEM application