Single-cell volumetric imaging with light field microscopy: Advances in systems and algorithms

Single-cell volumetric imaging is essential for researching individual characteristics of cells. As a nonscanning imaging technique, light field microscopy (LFM) is a critical tool to achieve real-time three-dimensional imaging with the advantage of single-shot. To address the inherent limits including nonuniform resolution and block-wise artifacts, various modified LFM strategies have been developed to provide new insights into the structural and functional information of cells. This review will introduce the principle and development of LFM, discuss the improved approaches based on hardware designs and 3D reconstruction algorithms, and present the applications in single-cell imaging.