Fluorescence tissue microscopy

The increasing need to investigate large biological specimens like whole tissues in 3D has driven the development of novel optical techniques capable of volumetric imaging with no compromises in terms of field-of-view and spatial resolution. On the other hand, a major challenge in the imaging of bulk biological tissues is their strong scattering which limits the effectiveness and usability of many optical techniques. For this reason, different chemical approaches for rendering biological tissues transparent have been proposed, developed, and applied with great success during recent years. The capability of imaging massive tissue (up to cm-scale) with the micrometric resolution has raised the need for new software platforms enabling management, segmentation, and analysis of TB-sized volumetric images. The aim of this special issue of Progress in Biophysical and Molecular Biology (PBMB) is to give a snapshot of the state-of-the-art optical methods for achieving mesoscopic 3D images, clearing approaches for rendering tissue transparent as well as innovative software to manage and analyze mesoscopic data.