Description: Automated, large-scale (petascale) serial sectioning and electron imaging of neural tissue used to reconstruct complete synaptic wiring diagrams (connectomes).
Kasthuri pioneered automated large-volume serial electron microscopy ('connectomics') to reconstruct complete synaptic wiring diagrams of the brain, and is now exploring synchrotron X-ray and photoemission electron microscopy (with the King lab) to remove imaging-speed bottlenecks and scale reconstructions toward whole-mouse and eventually human brains, comparing development, aging, and species differences. This is squarely the kind of resolution-pushing biological imaging the filter targets, achieving nanometer-scale synaptic resolution across cubic-millimeter-to-whole-brain volumes.
Lichtman invented the multicolor 'Brainbow' fluorescent labeling method and pioneered large-scale, automated serial-section electron microscopy to reconstruct complete synaptic wiring diagrams (connectomes) of neural tissue, pushing spatial resolution and scale together to map circuit-level brain structure.