Magnetic Collection

MagC

We glue magnetic resin to an already polymerized resin-embedded sample

The magnetic resin contains:

remote control of floating ultrathin sections

retrieval of the serial section order after collection

ease of automated localization of sections after collection

magnetic nanoparticles

a fluorescent dye

fluorescent particles

Hundreds of sections are cut with a standard ultramicrotome

and float freely at the water surface of a diamond knife with a large boat.

The sections are agglomerated magnetically with

a robotically actuated magnet or with our MagCollector

until they land onto an immersed substrate inside the water bath.

An overview of the collected sections is acquired and

their location is automatically found

using state of the art machine learning algorithms

directly available in our SectionFinder app.

The numbering of the sections is not physically conserved during MagC

because sections float freely and randomly at the water surface.

Which section is number 48? Which section is number 412?

Section numbering is done in two steps:

the fluorescent beads contained in the magnetic portion of each section are imaged with automated fluorescence microscopy
with advanced algorithms available in our SectionOrderer app we determine the numbering by solving a so-called traveling salesman problem

The numbering can also be retrieved using Electron Microscopy imagery of your sample.

Once you know the coordinates and numbering of the sections

you can then acquire 3D LM and EM imagery of

your regions of interest in your serial sections.

Regions of interest shown in yellow dashed boxes

3D EM of the wafer shown above