Wonder how microplastics interact with fish cells? Check out our UiT Nanoscopy channel on Youtube to learn more.
Summary: using a Nanolive CX-F microscope, we were able to image microplastic particles inside fish skin cells. The microscope uses the different index of refraction of the cells and the plastic to create a 3D map of the cellular environment. By processing the data afterwards, we can pick out the cell membranes and the plastic particles and assign them different pseudocolors for clear visualization. The technique also allows correlating the ‘refraction map’ with fluorescent imaging to obtain more accurate information about the structures of interest.
Project: the study is a multidisciplinary work between the Department of Physics and Technology and the Norwegian College of Fishery Science at the UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, as part of the Master thesis research of Ole K. Svartaas and Eskil M. Kjølstad. Our team member Deanna Wolfson assisted them with the planning, logistics, microscopy, image reconstruction and much more.
Congratulations to the team for such exciting results!
NB! We have many more interesting research projects for Master students. If you are interested in designing, developing or applying state-of-the-art microscopy techniques in your studies, just contact us and we will explain further how we can collaborate:
Balpreet.Singh.Ahluwalia@uit.no