Ace Therapeutics is a contract research organization specializing in preclinical drug development for antipsychotic disorders, serving the biotechnology, pharmacology, and drug development industries. We are the microscopy, imaging, and analytical partner for your research needs related to psychiatric disorders. We specialize in obtaining quantitative metrics from image data of your samples, products, or processes.

Introduction of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) in Psychiatry

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging is a powerful tool to study such details at the nanoscale and to further advance analysis, and can be used for the diagnosis of psychiatric disease pathology and for a variety of new functions and applications in cell biology. SEM has become a key tool in the field of psychiatric disease research, and whenever morphological, compositional, and structural information about the surface or near-surface regions of a sample is needed. SEM analysis is a necessary step whenever information about the morphology, composition and structure of the sample surface or near-surface areas is needed. Several studies have shown that SEM techniques significantly contribute to our understanding of the functional structure of the brain through nanoscale imaging of cells and tissues in three dimensions.

Fig. 1 Serial block-face scanning electron microscopy images from the lateral geniculate nucleus of the mouse brain. (Mukherjee K, et al., 2016)

SEM Services

Ace Therapeutics has multiple SEMs with different capabilities to image a variety of biotic and abiotic samples to provide morphological detail to address almost any psychiatric challenge. We use electrons for imaging to obtain higher magnification and greater depth of field than optical microscopes. Our instruments are capable of performing variable pressure or low vacuum SEM, as well as traditional high vacuum conditions for sample observation. We can perform SEM on various types of materials. For example, cells, tissues, blocks, films, powders and even biopolymers can be tested directly with little or no processing.

What Can We Help You Achieve in Psychiatry with SEM?

• Studying changes in the luminal surface topology of cerebrovascular endothelial cells
• Identifying the structure of cerebrospinal fluid associated with psychiatric disorders
• Analysis of particulate matter accumulation in the cerebrospinal fluid
• Observe synaptic changes and deficits
• Observe the three-dimensional structure of filaments in ballooning neurons
• Analyzing the 3D structure of brain synapses in amyloid precursor protein mutants
• Visualize and quantify vascular morphology in the brain
• Study of axonal pathology associated with psychiatric disorders

Our Advantages

• Short time to results and high throughput
• Lower cost compared to traditional SEM
• Images can be viewed in real time, averaged or combined
• Flexible scanning system, controlled by a graphical user interface

Ace Therapeutics processes different samples according to their characteristics to finalize the data acquisition and analysis. Our advanced imaging capabilities support drug researchers to be able to develop potential anti-psychotic drugs through preclinical studies, helping researchers to achieve high-throughput preclinical translational studies for faster and more effective development of future therapies. If you are interested in our scanning electron microscopy services, please feel free to make an inquiry. We look forward to working with you.

Reference

1. Mukherjee K, et al. Analysis of Brain Mitochondria Using Serial Block-Face Scanning Electron Microscopy. J Vis Exp. 2016, (113):54214.