3D Image Super-Resolution by Fluorophore Fluctuations and MA-TIRF Microscopy Reconstruction (3D-COL0RME)

Abstract

We propose a 3D super-resolution approach to improve both lateral and axial spatial resolution of a thin layer adjacent to the coverslip in Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) imaging applications. Our approach, called 3D-COL0RME (3D - Covariance-based ℓ <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</inf> super-Resolution Microscopy with intensity Estimation) improves both lateral and axial resolution by combining sparsity-based modelling for precise molecule localisation and intensity estimation in the lateral plane with a 3D reconstruction procedure in the axial one using Multi-Angle TIRF (MA-TIRF). Differently from state-of-the-art approaches, 3D-COL0RME does not require specific fluorophores or specific illumination. We validate 3D-COL0RME on simulated MA-TIRF blinking-type data and on challenging real MA-TIRF acquisitions, showing significant resolution improvements.