SmartSPIM

Light sheet microscope built for intact tissues

With uniform axial resolution across the whole sample, rapid volumetric imaging, and a custom imaging chamber, our SmartSPIM light sheet microscope provides the accuracy, speed, and flexibility you need to generate the highest quality data. Unlike many light sheet microscopes, SmartSPIM makes no compromises on resolution or acquisition speed.

Chosen by leading research institutions

Technical specifications

Immunolabeled GFAP (cyan) and Beta-amyloid plaques (magenta) in a 5xFAD mouse brain model of Alzheimer’s disease. 4x objective. Sample courtesy of Epp Lab, University of Calgary.

Retrogradely labeled motor cortical neurons projecting to striatum using rabies virus expressing eGFP. 10x, Sample courtesy of Prof. Byungkook Lim’s lab at UCSD.

Mouse brain hemisphere displaying ChAT-positive neurons in both the brainstem and basal forebrain and dense labeling of Neuropeptide Y throughout the hypothalamus. Tissue immunolabeled anti-NPY (cyan) and anti-ChAT (magenta). Imaged using at 4 µm Z-step and 1.8 µm XY pixel size. Tissue courtesy of Hongwei Dong, Bin Zhang, and Neda Khanjani and the Center for Integrative Connectomics (CIC) lab.

THY1-driven YFP expression in mouse brain. Sample courtesy of G. Allan Johnson, Duke Center for In Vivo Microscopy.

Mouse duodenum segment, perfused with lectin (red) to label vasculature and immunolabeled with anti-Olfm4 stem cell marker (cyan). Imaged at 2 µm Z-step and 1.8 µm XY pixel size. Sample courtesy of Dr. Chaudhry of the Ferrara Bone Marrow Transplantation Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine.

tdTomato labeling of a mouse spinal cord cell-type

Uniform axial resolution across FOV

The SmartSPIM light sheet microscope leverages patented axial sweeping technology (Dean et al. 2015): illumination optics scan the beam while synchronized to the camera’s rolling shutter detection, providing homogeneous axial point spread functions (PSFz) across the entire field of view (FOV).

Left: The sample imaged without axial sweeping displays high axial resolution only at the center of the FOV, while the sample imaged with sweeping shows uniform axial resolution across the FOV.

Microglia (IBA-1, 647 nm) in cortex of a 7-month-old wild-type C57BL/6 male mouse from Taconic Biosciences, model #B6, 3.6X magnification.

Customizable imaging chamber

Custom-designed imaging chamber and sample holders can accommodate a variety of tissue sizes, from organoids to rat brains, and even entire juvenile mice! With no points of contact between tissue and mounting hardware, the user can mount many sample types and sizes in different orientations.

Rapid, intuitive volumetric acquisition

Tunable imaging parameters allow for high speed volumetric imaging while maintaining quality resolution. 20 fps acquisition allows imaging of a mouse brain hemisphere or comparably sized intact sample in <30 minutes (at 1.8 µm x 1.8 µm x 4 µm voxel size).

Streamlined for efficient data collection, SmartSPIM’s acquisition software has real-time tile correction and is simple to operate, making imaging large samples a breeze.

Ready for image analysis? Easily craft publication-ready analysis outputs with our SmartAnalytics workstation, tailor-made for SmartSPIM.

The SmartSPIM microscope is really our lab workhorse. It’s very easy to use and robust, with unmatched speed and resolution – I personally think, compared to many commercial solutions, it’s probably one of the best systems out there. The support and customization from the team is remarkable. The flexibility of the optics and physical dimensions really make whole-body imaging possible. Without the proper optics, you can’t fully take advantage of the benefits of optical clearing. SmartSPIM allows us to easily and reliably see and generate large amounts of high quality data: this in turn allows us to do effective quantitative comparisons across different methods and transgenic animals.

Working with colleagues at LifeCanvas Technologies has opened an entirely new avenue of research for us. Our interest has focused on increasing the spatial resolution in magnetic resonance histology and microscopic imaging to allow studies of the mouse brain connectome. SmartSPIM imaging of the Thy1 mouse has yielded, in the same specimen, diffusion tensor MRI images and the opportunity to validate specific motor pathways. Merging the two yields a sum that is far more than the individual parts. We see the SmartSPIM data from our colleagues at LifeCanvas Technologies as a critical new complement to our MR methodologies.

I have been highly impressed by SmartSPIM and the LifeCanvas imaging team. The system can accommodate relatively large samples, and has a great optic setup to acquire high-resolution 3D images at high speed. LifeCanvas' incredible scientists and engineers are well-versed in both optics and neuroscience experiments. They have been a wonderful resource for troubleshooting and reliably applying the system to my lab's experimental needs. SmartSPIM tech support is outstanding and goes well beyond what is typically provided by commercial vendors. I strongly recommend SmartSPIM to any neuroscientists who want to perform high-resolution 3D mapping studies.

Yao et al. “Cardiovascular baroreflex circuit moonlights in sleep control.” Neuron (September 2022).
Suk et al. “Characterizing the differential distribution and targets of Sumo paralogs in the mouse brain.” bioRxiv (September 2022).
Brown et al. “An ensemble recruited by α2a-adrenergic receptors is engaged in a stressor-specific manner in mice.” Neuropsychopharmacology (September 2022).
Wang et al. “The role of somatosensory innervation of adipose tissues.” Nature (August 2022).
Mestre et al. “Periarteriolar spaces modulate cerebrospinal fluid transport into brain and demonstrate altered morphology in aging and Alzheimer’s disease.” Nature Communications (July 2022).
Bedenbaugh et al. “Organization of neural systems expressing melanocortin-3 receptors in the mouse brain: Evidence for sexual dimorphism.” Journal of Comparative Neurology (June 2022).

SmartSPIM

Light sheet microscope built for intact tissues

Chosen by leading research institutions

Technical specifications

Uniform axial resolution across FOV

Customizable imaging chamber

Rapid, intuitive volumetric acquisition

Ready for image analysis? Easily craft publication-ready analysis outputs with our SmartAnalytics workstation, tailor-made for SmartSPIM.

Recent publications citing SmartSPIM

Further reading

LifeCanvas Portraits: Dr. Yongsoo Kim

LifeCanvas Portraits: Dr. Li Ye

3D Phenotyping with the SmartSPIM Light Sheet Microscope

LifeCanvas Portraits: Dr. Jose Maldonado