Liquid tunable microscopy under two-photon excitation regime (Conference Presentation)

Taking inspiration from the philosophical and sociological speculation by Zygmunt Bauman (Z. Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2000) a new paradigm for optical microscopy is proposed regarding design, implementation, and applications. The two-photon excitation microscope of the future, combining different converging technologies (Piazza et al. 2017 J.Biophotonics; Sancataldo et al. 2017 Optica; Lanzanò et al. 2017 Nature Comm.), is a liquid tunable microscope able to compete regarding spatial resolution and analytical capacity with the electron microscope.It is liquid because it overlaps in an efficient and optimised way different mechanisms of contrast and it is tuneable because it offers a real time tuneability regarding spatial and temporal resolution like a radio tuned to the preferred radio station. It is smart because can adapt its architecture to the current scientific question.2PE, SHG, polarised SHG (Bianchini and Diaspro, J.Biophotonics, 2008) and Mueller matrix signature (Mazumder et al. 2017 J.Optics; Sheppard et al. 2017 JOSA A) are combined to form a new liquid image. Super resolved methods, including expansion microscopy, will be integrated. Such a scalable approach will be proposed to address questions related to cell functioning coupling high-order structure organisation of chromatin and its effect at the nanoscale (Diaspro et al. 1990 IEEE Trans.Biomed. Eng.).