2021 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 124-130
The ATUM-SEM system, which can analyze serial sections for electron microscopy in three dimensionally, is one of the SEM imaging procedure, and has been attracting attention recently. Among the various serial EM observation procedures, this system has excellent features, such as high-resolution imaging with a wide range of biological specimens and the possibility to image sections repeatedly. Furthermore, by combining ATUM-SEM system and multibeam SEM imaging technology which irradiates 61 beams in parallel to image the serial sections, the entire images of the EM block can be obtained quickly and with high resolution. The whole system enables us to carry out three-dimensional structural analysis of large biological samples from the level of millimeter resolution to that of nanometer resolution. Recently, the localization of a specific molecule can be clearly visualized on a wide range of sections by analyzing with the multibeam SEM and with the CLEM methods, simultaneously. In this review, we would like to summarize the ATUM-SEM system, and the procedure for large area imaging with multibeam SEM, and also describe the cutting-edge imaging technology of the large area CLEM imaging with multi-beam SEM, designated as LA-CLEM (large-area CLEM).
