Advances in table-top soft X-ray sources are predicted to rapidly expand the application of Soft X-ray Tomography for whole-cell modelling

As we approach the end of 2022, the soft X-ray microscopy community can look back on a year of continued growth in the use of soft X-ray tomography (SXT) for imaging the whole internal structure of intact biological cells in their near-native state. This is reflected in another bumper year of peer-reviewed research publications where soft X-ray was employed to conduct the research.

2022 will also be remembered as the year when commercially available table-top microscopes first demonstrated the ability to produce near-synchrotron level image performance. The launch of the SiriusXT SXT-100 Soft X-ray Microscope has demonstrated the viability of laboratory-scale instruments and its availability is expected to expand the use of SXT across cell biology and therapeutic research.

The attached paper, published in December 2022, by one of the leading SXT research centres acknowledges the advances made in 2022 will almost certainly expand the technique, particularly as major experimental input for whole-cell modelling.

Read the full paper here:

Soft X-ray tomograms provide a structural basis for whole-cell modeling

Valentina Loconte, Jian-Hua Chen, Bieke Vanslembrouck, Axel A.Ekman, Gerry McDermott, Mark A.Le.Gros, Carolyn A. Larabell, FASEB journal, December 15 2022.