Biology subjects

Emenari, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Emenari, A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Expansion Revealing of Pathology Resolves Nanostructures Associated with Inflammatory Phenotypes in COVID-19 Decedent Human Brain Tissue

Expansion revealing (ExR) elucidates cellular organization by separating proteins within dense nanostructures by 20x linear expansion, but requires fixation procedures incompatible with human pathology specimens. Here, we report ExR of pathology (ExRPath), which attains [~]20 nm resolution and decrowding of such tissues, through iterative 20x expansion, adapted to human brain pathology specimens. We also report a single-shot 15x expansion protocol for such tissues (15ExMPath), achieved through one-shot 15x expansion. Applying ExRPath and 15ExMPath to COVID-19-decedent brain tissue reveals periodic amyloid nanoclusters that co-localize with SARS-CoV-2 in a rare minority of patient specimens, pointing to a potential neuroinflammatory phenotype associated with COVID-19, and highlighting the power of high-throughput nanoimaging, empowered by expansion microscopy, for discovering potential novel disease mechanisms.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Dense, Continuous Membrane Labeling and Expansion Microscopy Visualization of Ultrastructure in Tissues

Lipid membranes are key to the nanoscale compartmentalization of biological systems, but fluorescent visualization of them in intact tissues, with nanoscale precision, is challenging to do with high labeling density. Here, we report ultrastructural membrane expansion microscopy (umExM), which combines a novel membrane label and optimized expansion microscopy protocol, to support dense labeling of membranes in tissues for nanoscale visualization. We validated the high signal-to-background ratio, and uniformity and continuity, of umExM membrane labeling in brain slices, which supported the imaging of membranes and proteins at a resolution of [~]60 nm on a confocal microscope. We demonstrated the utility of umExM for the segmentation and tracing of neuronal processes, such as axons, in mouse brain tissue. Combining umExM with optical fluctuation imaging, or iterating the expansion process, yielded [~]35 nm resolution imaging, pointing towards the potential for electron microscopy resolution visualization of brain membranes on ordinary light microscopes.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2019

Expansion Microscopy of Lipid Membranes

Lipids are fundamental building blocks of cells and their organelles, yet nanoscale resolution imaging of lipids has been largely limited to electron microscopy techniques. We introduce and validate a chemical tag that enables lipid membranes to be imaged optically at nanoscale resolution via a lipid-optimized form of expansion microscopy, which we call membrane expansion microscopy (mExM). mExM, via a novel post-expansion antibody labeling protocol, enables protein-lipid relationships to be imaged in organelles such as mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, the nuclear membrane, and the Golgi apparatus. mExM may be of use in a variety of biological contexts, including the study of cell-cell interactions, intracellular transport, and neural connectomics.

bioengineering↗