Development of new methods for high-resolution large volume imaging for molecular biology

For imaging in molecular biology, there is an ever increasing priority on observing cells in their native context. This has led to a number of state of the art imaging techniques, however they are often limited by complexity, price and accessibility. Across three modalities, the work in this thesis develops new protocols, software and hardware to enable higher level imaging through the reduction of required expertise, cost and system complexity. This includes novel excitation methods for light sheet generation, a semi-automated cryogenic sample preparation protocol, integration of advanced correlative light-electron microscopes and development of an exploration focused optical simulation suite.