Lightsheet microscope launch event

Summary: Lightsheet microscopy has been around for many years now, yet more and more applications are being developed. The last years, we observed an increase in cleared tissue imaging, after an initial start in life science imaging. With the introduction of lattice light sheet microscopy, the technology pushed its boundaries even further. However, light sheet imaging also comes with challenges such as sample handling, but mostly, data handling. Whereas 20 years ago, 1Tb would hold all information gathered by a small lab in one year, nowadays one single image can hold that much data. With that in mind, ZEISS is also working on several solutions to enable not only data acquisition but also data handling and processing.

Short bio: After his Biotechnology studies in Leuven, Sven Terclavers ran two imaging cores at the KULeuven/VIB for about 10 years. In 2009, he joined ZEISS as PASS Benelux – a Product & Application Sales Specialist. In this role, he was responsible to support (potential) customers with microscopy questions and help them find the right tools for their research questions. From 2014 until 2018 he worked as a PASS in the United States, first covering the South-East area, followed by three years as Embedded ZEISS Specialist at the Imaging Facility of the Harvard University in Boston. Upon my return to Europe, he accepted his current role as Head of PASS EMEA-LA.

Summary: The ability to image human tissue samples in 3D, with both cellular resolution and a large field of view (FOVs), can improve fundamental and clinical investigations. Dr. Anna Schueth presents a co-developed light-sheet microscopy prototype, the cleared-tissue dual view Selective Plane Illumination Microscope (ct-dSPIM), capable of fast, 3D high-resolution acquisitions, of cubic centimetre sized cleared tissue. She shows that ct-dSPIM imaging is an excellent technique to quantitatively assess entire MASH prepared large-scale human tissue samples in 3D, with considerable future clinical potential in prostate cancer.

Short bio: Dr. Anna Schueth is a postdoc at the Faculty of Neuroscience and Psychology, Maastricht University and works within the CBClab on large-scale, cleared tissue light-sheet imaging of post-mortem human brain and prostate cancer samples. As a recipient of the VENI research grant, awarded by the Dutch science organisation NWO, she has been working closely with local scientists, clinicians and international industrial partners on the co-development of a light-sheet microscope prototype and quantitative 3D visualization of both brain and prostate data. The work of Anna and her group can contribute to gaining a better understanding of 3D tissue morphology, such as prostate cancer patient tumours or human brain blood vessels.

Our Zeiss Light-Sheet 7 generates large amounts of data, and is therefore equipped with a cutting-edge analysis platform. To assist users in navigating and annotating in large tomographic recordings, we provide the option to observe data in Virtual Reality. During the reception, you can have first-hand experience in such analysis. So stick around after the talks and test it for yourself!