SLICE and BrightSLICE User Guide

Version 2025

Overview

The SLICE system offers the power of advanced light-sheet microscopy at a fraction of the cost of conventional systems. It can achieve high quality, in-focus imaging throughout large samples.

BrightSLICE software runs the SLICE microscope.

How it works

Projected light sheet microscopy (pLSM, patents pending) is a cutting-edge imaging technique that uses dynamic, modulated light sheets for high resolution visualization of cleared samples. This innovative approach enables multi-resolution imaging, compatibility with a variety of clearing methods and minimal photobleaching making it particularly valuable for fields like developmental biology, neuroscience, and other areas requiring detailed analysis of cleared intact specimens.

SLICE embodies these advancements, delivering a compact design and user-friendly interface that makes cutting-edge imaging technology accessible to labs of all sizes.

What's new

View the release notes (PDF).

Getting started

  • SLICE Unboxing and Setup Guide (PDF): Written instructions for assembling a new SLICE system.

    To set up a new SLICE system, we strongly recommend that you contact MBF Bioscience Technical Services staff for assistance by completing the Request Support form.

  • SLICE Quick start Guide: a short, step-by-step set of instructions for using the SLICE system with links to more detailed information.

  • Use the SLICE alignment workflow to optimize the alignment of the light sheets with the focal plane of the detection objective. Proper alignment is necessary to achieve sharp, in-focus images.

  • Calibrate the camera lens and associated pixel-binning software lenses using the Autocalibration tool. Auto-calibrating enables your SLICE system to accurately measure structures in your specimens by determining the µm to pixel ratio for the microscope lens; it can also provide data for BrightSLICE software to microadjust stage movements to keep the camera and stage precisely aligned.

Resources

  • Review SLICE system laser safety recommendations.

  • See the list of fluorescent dyes and proteins compatible with imaging using the SLICE system.

  • Visit the Light Sheet Microscopy area of the MBF Bioscience forum to ask questions and learn from MBF Bioscience experts and other SLICE system users.

  • Review our white paper, A Practical Guide to Selecting Compression Levels for 3D Light Sheet Fluorescent Microscopy Data (PDF).

  • Read our white paper on how to streamline handling, processing, and analyzing extensive datasets from light sheet microscopes (PDF).