專題演講 Seminar

2026/08/06(Thu) 10:30 -12:00 一樓演講廳 1F, Auditorium

Title

Mapping the subcellular landscape: 3D single-cell architecture via soft X-ray tomography

Speaker

陳建樺博士 (國家同步輻射研究中心)

Dr. Jian-Hua Chen (National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center)

Abstract

Understanding how cellular architecture is reorganized during crucial cellular activities, such as environmental stress, viral infection, and protein misfolding, requires imaging techniques that capture entire cells in three dimensions (3D) without destroying the original structures.

Fluorescence microscopy offers molecular specificity, but requires additional fluorescence labeling. Electron microscopy provides high spatial resolution, yet it often involves sectioning, limited sample sizes, or complex sample preparation, which makes whole-cell imaging and analysis challenging. Soft X-ray tomography (SXT) bridges this mesoscale gap by enabling quantitative 3D imaging of fully vitrified, intact cells at nanoscale resolution without the need for chemical fixation, staining, or physical sectioning (1).

Operating within the water window, SXT imaging takes advantage of the intrinsic absorption contrast between carbon-rich biomolecules and the surrounding aqueous environment, allowing for the direct observation of subcellular organization in near-native states. This makes SXT particularly powerful for studying cellular remodeling processes that span organelles, cytoplasmic, and whole-cell length scales.

In this presentation, I will highlight how SXT can be used to investigate structural and morphological changes associated with critical biological perturbations, including virus-induced host cell remodeling, liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS)-driven protein aggregation, and misfolded protein quality control in different cell types (2–4).

These examples demonstrate the strength of SXT in imaging global cellular responses while preserving detail to quantify organelle morphology, density distributions, and stress-related structural rearrangements. Together, these applications establish SXT as a unique platform for bridging molecularly targeted imaging and ultrastructural analysis, quantitative whole-cell 3D imaging across the mesoscale.

CV

Language

演講語言 (Language): in English

Hosted by

林耿慧 研究員
Lin, Keng-hui / Research Fellow