* Please note pricing may vary outside the US
SLICE™- Revolutionary Light-Sheet Microscopy System
Product Overview
SLICE: a paradigm shift in light-sheet microscopy that combines high performance with unprecedented affordability and a compact device footprint. Invented by leading researchers at Columbia University, SLICE delivers advanced 3D imaging capabilities to research labs of all sizes. This innovative system offers high-resolution imaging of biological samples, making it ideal for both individual laboratories and core facilities. SLICE comes equipped with powerful software for giga-voxel visualization, seamless image stitching, and sophisticated post-processing. Moreover, it seamlessly integrates with MBF Bioscience’s renowned suite of analytical tools, including Neurolucida 360, NeuroInfo, and NeuroDeblur, providing a comprehensive solution for cutting-edge research in neuroscience and beyond.
Complete SLICE light sheet systems for less than $75k USD*
Key Benefits
- Affordable. Performance on par with systems costing ten times as much
- Image labeled cells and neuronal processes throughout cleared tissue
- 3 illumination wavelengths for popular labels such as: GFP, Thy1-GFP, eYFP, Alexa 514, 633, 647, mCherry, tdTomato
- Compatible with iDISCO, CLARITY, SHANEL, CUBIC, BINAREE and other optical clearing techniques
- Compact design, benchtop ready
Sample Preparation and Compatibility
The SLICE system is designed to work with a variety of sample preparation techniques:
- Clearing Methods: Compatible with iDISCO, CLARITY, SHANEL, BINAREE and other optical clearing techniques
- Sample Mounting: Custom-designed oil chamber with RI-matching oil (n = 1.454)
- Multi-Color Imaging: Compatible with commonly used fluorescent proteins and dyes
- Sample Types: Whole mouse brains, human brain sections, organoids, bacterial biofilms
Sample Adaptability
The SLICE offers exceptional flexibility for various imaging needs:
- Adjustable Axial Resolution: from 5 to 50 μm through software-controlled light-sheet thickness
- Scalable Imaging Speed: Trade-off between resolution and speed for different applications
- Multi-Sample Imaging: Optimized for sequential imaging of multiple samples
- Custom Sample Chambers: Adaptable for specific sample types and sizes
BrightSlice Software
Comprehensive Acquisition, Processing and Visualization for Light Sheet Microscopy
SLICE comes with BrightSlice software, a comprehensive software application to handle teravoxel-scale imaging data with ease. From acquisition to visualization, BrightSlice provides everything you need in one powerful, intuitive package:
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- Light sheet image data acquisition
- Multi-channel imaging
- Post-processing for flatfield correction
- Stitching to create a seamless image compiled from individual image stacks
- Extensive 3D visualization
- Movie creation
- Data compression
Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy generates large image data, which requires powerful acquisition and processing software. BrightSlice software performs all the microscope control and post-processing you will need to create and visualize teravoxel light sheet microscope images. It also offers an optional add-on module for deconvolution.
The BrightSlice software has an easy-to-use interface, combining flexible image acquisition, high-performance 3D data viewing, and powerful post-processing capabilities into a single application with streamlined workflows and batch processing capabilities.
Image Acquisition and Microscope Control
BrightSlice software ensures experiment reproducibility by saving all imaging parameters in image metadata, and configurations can be saved for future experiments. Data output is optimized for MBF Bioscience’s software NeuroInfo (for brain atlas registration), Neurolucida 360 (for neuron and vessel analysis) and Stereo Investigator (for stereology) Output formats also include OME-TIFF to ensure compatibility with common third party image processing software, such as Fiji, Python, Matlab, and Napari.
Smart Acquisition
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- Real-time microscope control with intelligent parameter optimization and automatic refractive index compensation
- Multi-channel imaging with automated synchronization
- Automated metadata logging for perfect experiment reproducibility
- Save and load custom imaging protocols
High Performance Image Viewing
BrightSlice’s integrated 3D image rich viewing environment allows researchers to inspect the entire dataset directly after acquisition or after processing. The software is highly parallelized and designed to take advantage of advanced GPU graphics cards. This gives users control over their data with key capabilities, including:
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- Fast viewing of multi-terabyte data sets
- Maximum intensity projections and partial projections
- Highly parallelized for high performance with big image data
- Interactive sub-volume inspection
- Advanced movie generation
Enhanced Imaging Processing and Stitching
BrightSlice software integrates flexible light-sheet microscope control with multi-channel image viewing with and post-processing to achieve the highest quality images. BrightSlice generates high-quality images ready for publications and in-depth exploration by providing the following features:
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- Stitching hundreds of tiles into a seamless compiled image
- Automated flatfield correction for uniform illumination
- GPU-accelerated deconvolution (optional) for the highest optical clarity
- Sophisticated noise reduction and background correction
- Flexible data compression without quality loss
- Various other processing tools, such as image down-sampling
Seamless Integration
BrightSlice works perfectly with your existing workflow:
MBF Bioscience Light Sheet Suite
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- NeuroInfo for brain atlas registration and cell segmentation
- Neurolucida 360 for neuron and vessel analysis
- Stereo Investigator for stereology
- NeuroDeblur for deconvolution
Practical Guidelines for Working with your Large-scale Light Sheet Data
Read our white paper on how to streamline handling, processing, and analyzing extensive datasets from light sheet microscopes, allowing researchers to prioritize scientific discovery over data management challenges.
Ready for Any Challenge
SLICE has been rigorously tested on a wide range of samples:
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- Whole mouse brains
- Human brain tissue samples
- Brain and blood vessel organoids
- Bacterial biofilms
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Technical Support and Documentation
Our team provides comprehensive support to ensure optimal system performance:
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- Detailed user manual and technical documentation
- Remote installation and setup assistance
- Regular software updates and performance optimizations
- Custom adaptation services for specific research needs
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Who Is Using MBF Products?
MBF products are used across the globe by the most prestigious laboratories.
Key References
MBF’s products utility is underscored by the number of references it receives in the worlds most important scientific publications. See examples below:
Horejs, CM.
Low-cost, high-performance light-sheet microscopyView Publication
Chen, Y., Chauhan, S., Gong, C. et al.
Low-cost and scalable projected light-sheet microscopy for the high-resolution imaging of cleared tissue and living samplesView Publication
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Testimonials
"I rarely have encountered a company so committed to support and troubleshooting as MBF."
"MBF Bioscience is extremely responsive to the needs of scientists and is genuinely interested in helping all of us in science do the best job we can."
"I am so happy to be a customer of your company. I always get great help related with your product or not. With the experienced members, you are the best team I've ever met. All of your staff are very kind and helpful. Thank you for your great help and support all the time."
"We’ve been very happy for many years with MBF products and the course of upgrades and improvements. Your service department is outstanding. I have gotten great help from the staff with the software and hardware."
"Our experience with the MBF equipment and especially the MBF people has been outstanding. I cannot speak any higher about their professionalism and attention for our needs."
"MBF provides excellent technical support and helps you to find the best technical tools for your research challenges on morphometry."
Robust Professional Support
Our service sets us apart, with a team that includes Ph.D. neuroscientists, experts in microscopy, stereology, neuron reconstruction, and image processing. We’ve also developed a host of additional support services, including:
- Forums
We have over 25 active forums where open discussions take place.
>> Learn More - On-Site/Training
We’ve conducted over 750 remote software installations.
>> Learn More - Webinars
We’ve created over 55 webinars that demonstrate our products & their uses.
>> Learn More
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At MBF, we’ve spent decades understanding the needs of researchers and their labs — and have a suite of products and solutions that have been specifically designed for the needs of today’s most important and advanced labs. Our commitment to you is to spend time with you discussing the needs of your lab — so that we can make sure the solutions we provide for you are exactly what you’ll need. It’s part of our commitment to supporting you — before, during, and after you’ve made your decision. We look forward to talking with you!
