Perspective: Extending the Utility of Three-Dimensional Organoids by Tissue Clearing Technologies

An organoid, a self-organizing organ-like tissue developed from stem cells, can exhibit a miniaturized three-dimensional (3D) structure and part of the physiological functions of the original organ. Due to the reproducibility of tissue complexity and ease of handling, organoids have replaced real organs and animals for a variety of uses, such as investigations of the mechanisms of organogenesis and disease onset, and screening of drug effects and/or toxicity. The recent advent of tissue clearing and 3D imaging techniques have great potential contributions to organoid studies by allowing the collection and analysis of 3D images of whole organoids with a reasonable throughput and thus can expand the means of examining the 3D architecture, cellular components, and variability among organoids. Genetic and histological cell-labeling methods, together with organoid clearing, also allow visualization of critical structures and cellular components within organoids. The collected 3D data may enable image analysis to quantitatively assess structures within organoids and sensitively/effectively detect abnormalities caused by perturbations. These capabilities of tissue/organoid clearing and 3D imaging techniques not only extend the utility of organoids in basic biology but can also be applied for quality control of clinical organoid production and large-scale drug screening.

Nooks and Crannies in Visible Cities: 3D Re-imagining Techniques for Archaeology and Architecture in Film

With the success of the BBC and PBS series such as Italy’s Invisible Cities (2017), Ancient Invisible Cities (2018), and Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed (2016), made in collaboration with ScanLab and employing LiDAR scanning and 3D imaging techniques extensively, popular television programmes grasped the aesthetics of spectral 3D mapping. Visualizing urban topographies previously hidden away from view, these shows put on display technological prowess as means to explore veritably ancient vistas. This article sets out to investigate cinematographic devices and strategies – oscillating between perspectives on built heritage championed by two figures central to the 19th-century discourse on architecture: Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and John Ruskin – manipulating the image in a rivalry for the fullest immersion into a traversable facsimile of past spatialities.