Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM) Light Sheet
SPIM Principle
The SPIM technology offers fast, optically-sectioning, minimally-invasive 3D acquisition of fluorescing specimen over time. It achieves that by focusing a thin laser light-sheet into the specimen, taking two-dimensional images of the illuminated slice with a perpendicularly positioned detector (CCD camera). Three-dimensional stacks are obtained by moving the specimen orthogonal to the light-sheet between consecutive images. By mounting the sample in a rigid medium, e.g. agarose, and hanging it into the sample chamber in front of the detection lens, it is possible to rotate the sample and collect 3d stacks from multiple angles (views). |
SPIM Applications
SPIM promises to revolutionize several fields of biological research, in particular developmental and cell biology, by allowing imaging of large samples with high resolution over extended periods of time. SPIM has been used in a spectacular fashion to record the development of embryos of model organisms such as Drosophila and zebra fish with cellular resolution throughout the developing specimen (the so-called in toto imaging). The ability of SPIM to deliver high signal-to-noise 3D images of large specimen from different angles in an extended time-lapse is currently hard to achieve with any other microscopy technology. Since monitoring biological systems with high resolution over time is the goal of essentially all fields of biological inquiry, SPIM technology is imminently useful to biologists. |
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