Testimonials
“The mesoSPIM microscope is a tremendous device, … much less expensive, more flexible and gives more robust higher quality images than any of the commercial systems currently available.”
“It is very stable, easy to use and robust. Mostly used with CUBIC or DBE cleared material. This stability is mostly due to the fixed relationships between all the components and the polished stable nature of the software.”
“Almost all our data is stitched multipanel (we use Imaris Stitcher) and it really does provide completely flat perfectly stitched data sets. We are very happy with the device.”
“I used building this as a bit of a training exercise for my staff who remain a bit mystified about the core principles of basic optical design. The guides on github and the pictures were super useful.”
“You don’t really need to understand optics to make this device work, as long as you follow the instructions carefully your build should be successful… Though it does help to understand collimation etc but your instructions are solid so a less experienced builder should be able to get things running.”
“You have done a great job of building a solid software platform that makes integrating the system with flexibility really easy. The only file that needs to be tweaked is the primary config file and once that is set up very few changes need to be made to it.”
— Simon C. Watkins, Ph.D., FRCPath, Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair Cell Biology, Professor Immunology, Director Center for Biologic Imaging, University of Pittsburgh, USA. www.cbi.pitt.edu (August 2024)
“We needed a solution for rapid screening of numerous samples to optimize tissue clearing workflows. The Benchtop mesoSPIM was chosen due to its accessibility, ease of operation, and reliability.”
“The build process was straightforward. The most tedious aspect was configuring the software (
navigate), but even that was manageable. … It took us just a few hours to build, in part because we opted for a single-sided illumination variant and reused parts from the original mesoSPIM for the illumination train.”
“We’re happy with the results. They are as expected.”
— Kevin Dean, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, co-inventor of the ASLM principle, Microscopy Innovation Lab, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA. www.dean-lab.org (August 2024)
Marko (Pende) has keen interest and experience working with custom-built light sheet microscope and in toto imaging of biological samples. Hence, it was logical for both of us to have this technology at MDIBL. While there are commercial microscope options, we both agree and understand that custom-built microscopes provide significant flexibility something that is crucial for our work. mesoSPIM was an easy choice because of its open source nature of both hardware and software.
Are we happy? - That is an understatement. Today there is rarely a paper in wet-lab biology that does not use microscope images. Hence, having a strong microscope facility is essential for any institute. Addition of mesoSPIM to our wonderful light microscope facility which already houses cutting-edge microscopes such as (Zeiss) 980-super resolution microscope, we have managed to put our light microscopy facility (LMF) on world map. Today, mesoSPIM is a crown jewel of our facility and institute. Since its installation, we have received numerous requests for imaging wide-variety of samples from all over the world. So far, we have imaged zebrafish, African turquoise killifish, axolotl and mouse samples among others and images have been nothing but stunning. Anyone who has visited us to see microscope and images produced by mesoSPIM are all left with wow factor and we are inundated with more and more requests.
Thanks to the software that Nikita and Fabian have built and its user friendliness, we have managed to train many users on this microscope. Hence, at this stage, user training is not a major issue for us. The only challenge that we as a facility see is the maintenance (…), we will have to train or hire a person who understands engineering aspects (of mesoSPIM).
— Prayag Murawala, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, MDI Biological Laboratory, Hannover Medical School, USA. murawalalab.mdibl.org (September 2024)
As an imaging core facility, the combination of small footprint, low price, axially scanned light sheet and great image quality really convinced us. In addition, the elegant design really lowered the threshold for me personally to build it. From placing the first order to take the first image, I was able to build the system without major struggles in 9 months. Notably, I was able to do so “on the side”, without impeding my regular duties as an advanced microscopist in our facility. Our users are happy with it, because it’s easy to use, fast, and has a great image quality.
- Kai Schleicher, PhD, Research Associate in Advanced Light Microscopy, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland. www.biozentrum.unibas.ch (November 2024)