The Beckman Advanced Center for Light-sheet Microscopy
Welcome to the BALM laboratory! This is an exciting new initiative for the Rockefeller University’s Bio-Imaging Resource Center (BIRC), enabled by a grant awarded by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for Light-sheet Microscopy and Data Science (co-PIs Jim Hudspeth, Alison North and Tom Carroll).
In the BALM, housed on the 1st floor of the Bronk laboratory (DWB 102), we are building and developing pre-commercial light-sheet systems for imaging living organisms and cells at very high speed and at different scales. In light-sheet microscopy, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, hence commercial systems like those in the existing BIRC cannot address all biological questions. The pre-commercial systems being assembled in the BALM are cloned from highly successful, open-source designs that will allow the flexibility to further develop and customize them, to adapt them to the needs of a specific biological question and sample.
The most important components for successfully building pre-commercial systems are people and their expertise. The Beckman grant allowed us to bring on board two fantastic new members of the BIRC staff team – Dr. Behzad Khajavi, our dedicated Optical Engineer, and Dr. Ved Sharma, our Advanced Image Analyst. Together, they will enable RU and external researchers to acquire the best possible light-sheet microscopy images and then to mine the data to produce novel, quantitative results. For more details on how the BIRC has advanced its overall Image Analysis and Data Management, please see the accompanying webpage.
Light-sheet microscopes in the BALM
Two microscopes are currently under final construction in the BALM:
The “SCAPE” microscope
The SCAPE (Swept, Confocally-Aligned Planar Excitation) microscope was designed by Dr. Elizabeth Hillman at Columbia University. This system allows high-speed volumetric imaging of living samples, including moving organisms. We have cloned the SCAPE system (Bouchard et al., [2015], Nat. Photonics, 9, 113), thanks to great support and advice from Dr. Hillman and her excellent laboratory members. The current configuration is limited to 20x magnification and to 488 and 568 nm lasers, but we are adding a 640 nm laser to enable far-red imaging too. Please come and try it so we can collect critical user feedback to support further development!
The Lattice Light-Sheet (LLS) microscope
The Lattice Light-Sheet system under construction in the BALM is the latest generation (Gen III) of the LLS microscope designed by Eric Betzig’s lab (Chen et al. [2014] Science 346, 439) and first cloned within the Advanced Imaging Center at Janelia. This system also allows high-speed, gentle, volumetric imaging but at much higher resolution and magnification, thus being suited to subcellular analysis. Dr. Tarun Kapoor generously donated his Gen I LLS system to the center where Behzad is re-building it in an improved and more user-friendly design, with a view to adapting it further to the needs of our researchers down the line, for example by incorporating Adaptive Optics (Liu et al. [2018], Science 360, 284).
These microscopes will operate under the BIRC’s umbrella. The SCAPE is now available to all researchers (internal or external) who would like to try it, initially free of charge. Please contact BIRC staff Behzad Khajavi or Alison North (Senior Director, BIRC) to arrange to come and test out the SCAPE and see if it will be useful for your research. We will also inform you as soon as the LLS system is ready for use.
Many thanks for your interest and for the wonderful support by the Beckman Foundation, the Kirby Foundation and our collaborators at Columbia and Janelia, which is enabling this exciting new imaging opportunity at the Rockefeller University.