UC2

UC2 provides a modular 3D-printed microscopy platform that uses off-the-shelf optical and electronic components to implement bright-field and fluorescence light-sheet imaging for acquisition of time-lapse and 3D volumetric data from biological samples.

Key Features:

• Modular Design: 3D-printed building blocks enable assembly and reconfiguration of optical and mechanical components to support multiple microscopy modalities.
• Bright-field Imaging: Configuration for bright-field time-lapse imaging with automatic focusing to minimize axial drift during long-term observation.
• Fluorescence Light-sheet: Reconfigurable into a fluorescence light-sheet system capable of acquiring 3D volumes of fluorescent specimens.
• Off-the-shelf Components: Uses widely available optical and electronic parts combined with 3D-printed elements for system construction.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Employs 3D printing and readily available materials to reduce equipment cost.
• Open-Access Repository: Design files and configuration examples are provided in an online repository (https://github.com/bionanoimaging/UC2-GIT).
• Demonstrated Biological Imaging: Shown to image macrophage cell differentiation, apoptosis, and proliferation, and to acquire 3D volumes of GFP-expressing living Drosophila larvae.
• Open-standard Platform: Provides a hardware standard that supports experimental customization and novel optical configurations.

Scientific Applications:

• Time-lapse cell biology: Monitoring macrophage cell differentiation, apoptosis, and proliferation over extended periods with minimized axial drift.
• Developmental biology and in vivo imaging: Acquisition of 3D fluorescent volumes from GFP-expressing living Drosophila larvae using light-sheet modality.
• Modality-flexible microscopy: Switching between bright-field and fluorescence modalities for experiments requiring both structural and fluorescent contrast.

Methodology:

Construction by assembling 3D-printed modular blocks with off-the-shelf optical and electronic components, provision of open-access design files (https://github.com/bionanoimaging/UC2-GIT), and use of automatic focusing to minimize axial drift during time-lapse imaging.