In this project, a completely new type of optical microscope will be developed that combines the best aspects of traditional confocal with light-sheet microscopy. Confocal microscopy is one of the most successful imaging methods in biomedicine and suitable to visualise the structure of cells and tissues in 3D space. However, as in confocal microscopy a single point is raster-sampled through the volume of interest, its acquisition speed is very slow. Furthermore, only a fraction of the fluorescent light generated inside the sample is actually captured by the microscope?s photodetector, which limits this technique?s application to living samples, which tolerate only a limited amount of light exposure.Light-sheet microscopy, on the other hand, excels in imaging speed and low light-dose, both of which are critical for studies of living samples. In light-sheet microscopy, a thin slice of the sample is illuminated at a time and the produced fluorescence is imaged by a second lens, which is positioned at a right angle to the light-sheet. Although this arrangement is very efficient in collecting light from the sample, the requirement for a second lens limits access to the imaging volume and thus excludes the use of standard sample preparation protocols.The new microscope, dubbed SOLIS (single-objective light-sheet imaging system), keeps the resolution and ease of use of confocal microscopy, i.e. only a single objective lens near the sample is required, while increasing its gentleness akin to light-sheet microscopy. Additionally, thanks to its unique optical design, SOLIS manages to surpass the imaging speed of classical light-sheet microscopy as, in essence, it records fully sectioned volumes in an instant.One application that will be enabled by the new system is the exploration of the repair mechanism of heart cells.
