TY  - JOUR
AU  - Min, Junwei
AU  - Gao, Peng
AU  - Yuan, Xun
AU  - Xue, Yuge
AU  - Liu, Ruihua
AU  - Feng, Yingjie
AU  - Wang, Siying
AU  - Li, Yan
AU  - Wen, Kai
AU  - Yang, Liming
AU  - Wu, Tengfei
AU  - Yao, Baoli
PY  - 2026
TI  - Optical diffraction tomographic microscopy: a cutting-edge label-free three-dimensional bioimaging
JO  - Biophysics Reports
SN  - 2364-3439
SP  - 254
EP  - 274
VL  - 12
IS  - 4
AB  - Optical diffraction tomographic microscopy (ODTM) is an advanced label-free three-dimensional optical microscopic imaging technique. It measures the three-dimensional refractive index (RI) distributions of unstained, transparent biological specimens with high resolution from scattered fields based on the diffraction tomography theorem. Both the morphological and biophysical parameters, as well as the internal organelles of the specimen, can be further analyzed from the measured RI values. ODTM has been increasingly employed in the field of biology, yielding numerous promising results. In order to further promote the application and popularization of this technology in biological research, we provide a tutorial on the fundamental principles and instrumentation of ODTM. The distinct characteristics of ODTM using various illumination strategies and reconstruction algorithms are presented. Observation results from single cells, tissues, and small-scale biological objects are shown to demonstrate the superior performance of ODTM. Current trends and future perspectives of ODTM are discussed.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.52601/bpr.2025.250026
DO  - 10.52601/bpr.2025.250026