Imaging of Biological Materials and Cells by X‑ray Scattering and Diffraction

• Published in: ACS nano Vol. 11; no. 9; pp. 8542 - 8559
• Main Authors: Hémonnot, Clément Y. J, Köster, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 26.09.2017
• Subjects: Animals; Equipment Design; Holography - instrumentation; Holography - methods; Humans; Microscopy - instrumentation; Microscopy - methods; Optical Imaging - instrumentation; Optical Imaging - methods; Optics and Photonics - instrumentation; Optics and Photonics - methods; Scattering, Small Angle; Synchrotrons; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - instrumentation; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; X-Ray Diffraction - instrumentation; X-Ray Diffraction - methods; biological materials; diffraction; scattering; tomography; X-ray optics; holography; coherent diffractive imaging; biological cells; ptychography; X-ray imaging
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b03447

Cells and biological materials are large objects in comparison to the size of internal components such as organelles and proteins. An understanding of the functions of these nanoscale elements is key to elucidating cellular function. In this review, we describe the advances in X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques for imaging biological systems at the nanoscale. We present a number of principal technological advances in X-ray optics and development of sample environments. We identify radiation damage as one of the most severe challenges in the field, thus rendering the dose an important parameter when putting different X-ray methods in perspective. Furthermore, we describe different successful approaches, including scanning and full-field techniques, along with prominent examples. Finally, we present a few recent studies that combined several techniques in one experiment in order to collect highly complementary data for a multidimensional sample characterization.