Single-objective light-sheet microscope

• Subject Area: Neurosciences
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 553891514

Fast and uninterrupted live imaging of entire animal nervous systems or entire small organisms is a major challenge in microscopy. Conventional point-scanning techniques such as confocal microscopy are constrained by scanning speed and detector sensitivity and are limited in either the field of view, the sampling density or the imaging speed. We propose to purchase a single-objective light sheet microscope to enable high-speed whole-body fluorescent live imaging at near-isotropic sampling. The system we envisage combines high-speed and high-sensitivity sCMOS camera technology with a versatile Swept, Confocally Aligned Planar Excitation (SCAPE) microscope design. Such a system can achieve high-resolution volumetric imaging at over 300 volumes per second. Our aim is to use the system for whole-brain calcium imaging to study neural circuit dynamics and anatomy in larvae of the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii and other emerging marine models. Through the Nikon Imaging Centre (NIC) we will provide access and training to the single-objective light-sheet technology to researchers working on biological samples at COS and the Heidelberg University campus at In Neuenheimer Feld. The purchase of a high-speed single-objective SCAPE system would strengthen the position of COS in neuroscience, functional imaging and organismal biology. The establishment of functional organismal neuroscience is integral to the research strategy of the Centre for Organismal Studies at Heidelberg University.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Ein-Objektiv-Lichtschnittmikroskop
• Instrumentation Group: 5040 Spezielle Mikroskope (außer 500-503)
• Applicant Institution: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Leader: Professor Dr. Gáspár Jékely