Managing Director Viventis Microscopy, Switzerland
Abstract: 3D culture systems like organoids and spheroids were initially established to study mechanisms of organ formation and tissue morphogenesis. These models are now also becoming increasingly valuable for disease modeling, toxicology studies, and drug screening in the biotech and pharma industries. Organoids and spheroids recapitulate the complexity of multicellular environments and thus has the potential to reduce and ultimately replace animal experimentation in the drug discovery process.
Most established high-throughput imaging systems are designed for adherent 2D culture. This limits their ability to collect complete, comprehensive information from larger 3D samples (scaling up to several mm), which are optically dense and light sensitive. For such 3D samples, light sheet microscopy is the imaging technique of choice due to its low photo-toxicity and high acquisition speed. However, current light sheet microscopes suffer from complicated sample mounting, compromising sample survival, and lack of multi-position imaging. I will discuss our efforts in developing open-top light sheet microscope systems compatible with multi-well sample holders for improved imaging of 3D culture models. I will discuss our latest developments as well as the current challenges for making light sheet microscopy more accessible for medium to high-throughput imaging studies both in academia and biotech/pharma.
