The mesoSPIM (mesoscale selective plane illumination microscopy) project aims at creating open-hardware microscopy platforms for imaging in cleared tissue. Core features of the mesoSPIM setups are:
- compatibilty with all tissue clearing techniques
- large field-of-views
- dual-sided excitation
- optimized for fast screening of whole mouse brain samples (10-14 GB/brain/color at low magnification, up to 100 GB/brain/color at high magnification)
- near-isotropic sampling (1.5-5 µm in X,Y and 3-6 µm in Z) due to an axially swept lightsheet which leads to uniform z-resolution across the field-of-view
- modular sample holders and quick sample exchange
- large travel range (50 x 50 x 100 mm) to allow imaging of very large samples
The Benchtop mesoSPIM is the newest version and its repository is separate to organize documentation and wiki pages of the two very different systems.
The mesoSPIM v.5 wiki provides documentation, setup, and usage instructions of "mainframe" mesoSPIMs that require an optical table.
The detection arm of older versions (4 and 5) can be upgraded to a v.6 "Revolver" using the following documentation.
- You are looking for a versatile imaging platform for cleared tissue that can be tailored to your needs.
- Research groups and imaging facilities with experience in building and supporting custom microscopes.
- screening of large numbers of samples for clearing & labeling quality
- visualization of cell populations or other structures (blood vessels, plaques) in whole cleared organs
- imaging live samples (this is the domain of classical light-sheet microscopes)
- high-resolution imaging (<1.5 µm optical resolution), e.g. subcellular structures.
You can start by comparing Benchtop and V5 versions and deciding which one suites your needs better. When ready, review the respective Wiki pages and parts list. If still in doubt, contact us for help.
See the project history and meet the developers on our main website.