Dual-Color Fluorescent Microscope on Chip for 3D Imaging of Single Cells

Recent advances in microscopy allowed imaging from whole embrios, down to the organelles inside a single cell by improving the spatial and temporal resolution. However, one major challenge is to provide accurate statistical analysis that takes into account the heterogeneity of cells, which has been evidenced even in nominally homogeneous populations. New imaging platforms able to perform recording and analysis of multiple samples with minimal photodamage are therefore required. Three dimensional optical microscopy techniques, such as light sheet microscopy [1], have shown to be a powerful tool to rapidly image biological samples at high spatial resolution, nevertheless complex sample preparation and system alignment still limits the imaging of multiple specimen. Few integrated approaches have been proposed [2], and we recently demonstrated a selective plane microscope on-chip [3] that permits to analyze cellular spheroids at high throughput.