WG 4 – System chromatic aberration and co-registration

Chromatic aberration refers to possible artifacts caused by the wavelength dependency of an imaging system’s optical properties, with the result that two colors arising from the same physical location within the sample appear separated in the image.  Such artifacts result from the optical design of the system (e.g., well-corrected versus poorly corrected objective lenses), the manufacturing tolerances of the system components, and the alignment of the optical components.

Co-registration accuracy more generally refers to the system’s ability to co-localize dyes of different wavelengths emitting from the same object within a particular experimental set-up. This can be affected by both the experimental set-up and the system architecture. Working within the assumption that microscope users are ultimately interested in co-registration accuracy, WG4 aims to use sub-resolution and larger multi-colored bead preparations to measure co-registration accuracy. Alternative tools for performing these measurements will also be evaluated. WG4 will compare reproducibility across different laboratories to determine the best protocol.