Where the Human Brain Reaches its Limit
The cells in our blood vessels talk to each other. How they interact with each other, how far apart they are – all this provides us with important insights into inflammatory diseases. The cells of our immune system communicate with each other as well as with the endothelial cells that line the innermost layer of the blood vessels. This communication controls where immune cells attach to blood vessels, migrate through them, and then enter surrounding tissues to fight inflammation. In autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, however, the infiltration of immune cells into tissue does not lead to healing of the inflammation, but rather worsens it and ultimately causes the disease to become chronic. Therefore, we would like to identify criteria that will allow us, in the future, to detect these processes in the blood or tissue of each individual person before the actual onset of disease – that is, long before these inflammations become chronic. For example, in my research group we examine the inner layer
the microscope, and we usually work with more than 20
of blood vessels under the light sheet fluorescence microscope.
samples per test series. The many images that the micros-
We are studying which cells are involved in inflammatory
scope creates pose a great challenge for us. Although there
processes, what the cell walls look like, how far apart the cells
are computer programs available today, we researchers
are from each other and how the cells communicate with each
still spend a lot of time evaluating all the information from
other. The light sheet fluorescence microscope expands the
these images. Artificial intelligence can help us with this
laser beam like a sheet of paper, and this thin disk of light that
task much better than an individual computer program.
is created illuminates each individual plane of our samples and takes a picture of each plane. We later assemble the individual
Prof Dr Anika Grüneboom,
images into a 3D model on the computer. On average, we can
Head of Bioimaging
produce well over 500 images from a single sample under
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ANNUAL REPORT 2021
