Image analysis for brain tissue reconstruction with super-resolution light microscopy

Mapping the complex and dense arrangement of cells and their connectivity in brain tissue requires volumetric imaging at nanoscale spatial resolution. While light microscopy excels at visualizing specific molecules and individual cells, achieving dense, synapse-level circuit reconstruction has not been possible with any light microscopy technique. Thus, the goal of my work was to develop image and data analysis pipelines for brain tissue visualization and reconstruction with light microscopy. To achieve dense circuit reconstruction with single-synapse resolution, I developed both conventional and deep-learning-based synapse detection algorithms, as well as connectivity analysis pipelines that integrate synapse detection with volumetric segmentation of brain tissue.