Work

Self-consistent automatic retrieval of single-cell rotation enables highly reliable holo-tomographic flow cytometry

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Holo-tomographic flow cytometry (HTFC) is a label-free imaging technique to obtain three-dimensional (3D) refractive index (RI) tomograms of individual flowing and rotating cells. Determining the unknown orientation of moving cells is crucial for tomographic reconstruction. There is significant potential to enhance previous methods by increasing accuracy, achieving full automation, and reducing the dependence on a priori information. Here, we present a novel, to the best of our knowledge, self-consistent method for the accurate and automatic retrieval of unknown rotations of single cells. The proposed method retrieves the sequence of rotation angles by an iterative reprojection-based optimization algorithm of the reconstructed 3D RI tomogram. The experimental results demonstrate that the method proposed in this work achieves full automation and superior accuracy, thus surpassing the existing techniques. This advancement markedly improves the scalability of HTFC, enabling automatic and highly reliable analysis of single cells.

Source: Optics Letters

DOI: 10.1364/ol.568696

Authors: Daniele Pirone, Lisa Miccio, Vittorio Bianco, Pietro Ferraro, Pasquale Memmolo

Institution: Institute of Applied Science and Intelligent Systems

Language: English

Topic: Digital Holography and Microscopy

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: NextGenerationEU

Award: G4269351907