Light‐Sheet Microscopy Technology in the Multiuser Environment of a Core Imaging Facility – Practical Considerations

Abstract

New imaging technologies are always a challenge when they enter core imaging facilities or become a shared system that accommodates several users, projects, and demands. Not only they need to be set up and run smoothly in this multiuser environment (that requires staff training, maintenance, and scheduling), but they are needed either for short time imaging sessions on fixed samples, or sometimes blocked for several days for a long-term life imaging of developmental events, while delivering large amount of data. To help other imaging centers to establish efficient imaging process and smooth user experience, here we present the experience from two different imaging facilities that have used light sheet microscopes even before the first commercial systems became available. The first imaging platform has implemented three commercial light-sheet systems (2 × Lightsheet Z.1, Zeiss and 1 × LS1, Viventis) in the multiuser environment of the core light microscopy facility of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden (Germany), which serves about 220 users per year, and it has an average volume of annual booked instrument time of 40 000 hours. The second is the Centre for Cell Imaging at Liverpool University (United Kingdom), part of the Liverpool Shared Research Facilities network, which serves about 130 users per year and has an average volume of annual booked instrument time of about 24 000 hours. The CCI was the first open access core facility in United Kingdom to set up a Zeiss Lightsheet Z.1 microscope. Here we share some practical tips for those who plan to implement this technology in their institutes.

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