About this Research Topic

Background

This Research Topic is based on the proceedings of the Wyss Center lightsheet microscopy workshop which was held from 19 – 20 March 2018 at Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland.

Light Sheet microscopy is a fluorescence imaging technique that allows to visualize whole organs or small organisms while preserving their physical integrity i.e. without the need to slice them prior imaging. Although the principle of operation of this technology was developed more than 100 years ago, it is only in the last fifteen years that the community of biologists has started to use such microscopes in a common way. Since that time, this type of microscopy has become a standalone field of research that has never been as active as it is now. Indeed, a broad international community of researchers, engineers, programmers, physicists and biologists contribute to the rapid evolution of this field. Light Sheet microscopy of clarified tissues is highly challenging in different ways. First, tissue clarification preserving the endogenous fluorescence of genetically encoded proteins or respecting the ability to immunolabel specific cellular populations remains problematic. Second, the imaging technology itself needs to be improved such that it becomes possible to image faster, with better axial and in-plane spatial resolution and with a higher sensitivity in thick tissues. Finally, this imaging modality is known to generate gigantic amounts of data (up to tens of Terabytes per experiment). There is, nowadays, no universal technique that is efficient enough to process, analyze and exploit this huge amount of digital data. It is therefore necessary to develop, together, some standards of imaging technologies and image analysis.

At the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, Switzerland, we accelerate the development of neurotechnology for human benefit. In pursuit of our goals we have created an imaging center which integrates a series of cutting edge and custom-tailored tools into a single working pipeline aimed at imaging, visualizing and analysing whole organs at high temporal or spatial resolution. There is, however, still a requirement for a universal technique that can efficiently process, analyze and exploit the huge amounts of digital data produced by the latest imaging techniques.

Our goal for this research topic is to promote and strengthen a community that will work together and share information to tackle these challenges and ultimately develop new standards for imaging technologies and image analysis.

All different kinds of papers are welcomed in this Research Topic including Original Research, Reviews, Protocols and methodological articles.

Keywords: Light Sheet Microscopy, Tissue Clarification, COLM, MesoSPIM, DISCO, Big Data management, Stitching, 3D registration

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