Overview

• Researchers at the University of Osaka report the technique in Light: Science & Applications, detailing a laboratory-ready setup for time-deterministic cryofixation.
• An electrically triggered cryogen injection synchronized to UV stimulation arrests cellular events with approximately 10 ms timing accuracy.
• Proof-of-concept experiments froze calcium-ion wave propagation in neonatal heart-muscle cells, then captured the arrested state in 3D using super‑resolution methods.
• Cryofixation permitted exposure times about 1,000 times longer than practical in live-cell imaging, substantially boosting signal-to-noise and quantification accuracy.
• Near-instantaneous immobilization let the team apply spontaneous Raman and super‑resolution fluorescence microscopy sequentially to the same cells without temporal mismatch.