Ai Takahashi studies engrams using correlative light and electron microscopy. (IMAGE)
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Technician Ai Takahashi was able to use CLEM to observe engrams, in a technical breakthrough for microscopy.
Electron microscopy cannot be used to track changes in the living brain. It is only able to capture brain structures at a single point in time. Therefore, identifying engrams – networks of specific cells and synapses involved in a memory – represents a real challenge. By adding fluorescent tags to engrams and studying brain samples with fluorescent light microscopy, the researchers were able to pinpoint the relevant connections involved, to then study these particular regions in more detail with electron microscopy methods.
By carefully correlating the light microscopy and electron microscopy data sets, the team became the first researchers in the world to identify and image engram synapses by this technique.
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Andrew Scott/OIST
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