X-ray Microscopy

Nowadays, synchrotron-based X-ray tomographic microscopy has established itself as a fundamental tool for non-invasive, quantitative investigations of a broad variety of samples, with application ranging from space research and materials science to biology and medicine. Thanks to the brilliance of modern third generation sources like the Swiss Light Source, voxel sizes in the micrometer and nanometer range can be achieved.

Our research focuses on the development of tools (instruments and algorithms) which best exploit such a powerful source. To one side we are engaged in the design and construction of ultrafast systems (stroboscopic coherent X-ray radiology and 1-Hz tomography) to allow dynamic investigation of rapidly evolving systems. On the other hand we develop and optimize novel image modalities based on the coherence properties of synchrotron radiation (phase and darkfield imaging) and try to adapt them from the micron- to the nano-scale. Finally, we intensively develop optimized applications for fast, parallel postprocessing of tomographic data starting from simple normalizations corrections up to ad-hoc reconstruction and artifact reductions algorithms.

Research Topics

• Methods Instrumentation
  • Hard X-ray phase-contrast tomographic nanoimaging
  • Real-Time Tomography for Biology and Material Science
  • Fast reconstruction algorithms dealing with tomographic artifacts
  • Quantitative dark-field tomography
• Applications
  • Examination of materials at moderate to high temperatures using in-situ tomographic microscopy
  • Visualization and quantification of amyloid plaques in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (ex-vivo)
  • Ultrastructural Bone Phenomics using High Throughput Synchrotron-based X-Ray Tomography
  • Tomographic microscopy as a novel research method for structural and compositional analysis of human kidney stones
  • Impact of oxidized ATP as purinergic P2X receptor antagonist during inflammation on bone remodeling

Staff

• Prof. Dr. Marco Stampanoni, Head
• Dr. F. Marone, Beamline Scientist
• Dr. R. Mokso, Beamline Scientist
• Dr. J. Fife, Post-Doc
• Dr. P. Modregger, Post-Doc
• Dr. B. Pinzer, Post-Doc
• Dr. Z. Wang, Post-Doc
• Mr. K. Mader, PhD student
• Mr. T. Thüring, PhD student
• Mr. S. Rütishauser, PhD student
• Mr. G. Mikuljan, Beamline Technician
• Mr. A. Isenegger, Beamline Controls