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EnglishWhat Is SLICE Light Sheet Microscopy from MBF Bioscience?
Updated
SLICE is MBF Bioscience's light sheet microscopy platform, positioned by the company as "the new standard in light sheet microscopy." It belongs to the same product family as the company's stereology, neuron reconstruction, and vascular analysis tools, which means it is aimed at researchers who need to image large, cleared tissue volumes in 3D and then quantify what they see. If your work involves whole-brain or whole-organ imaging rather than thin sections on a slide, SLICE is the part of the MBF Bioscience lineup built for that job.
What light sheet microscopy does
Light sheet (also called selective plane illumination) microscopy illuminates the sample from the side with a thin sheet of light while a camera captures the illuminated plane from a perpendicular direction. Two consequences matter for research:
- Speed: because only one plane is lit at a time, the whole volume can be captured quickly instead of point-by-point.
- Low phototoxicity and photobleaching: out-of-focus regions are not illuminated, so delicate cleared samples survive longer imaging sessions.
This is why light sheet systems are commonly paired with tissue clearing methods — the sample must be transparent enough for the light sheet to penetrate and for emitted signal to reach the detector.
Where SLICE sits in the MBF Bioscience product line
MBF Bioscience describes itself as engineering "quantitative imaging solutions" across stereology, neuron reconstruction, vascular analysis, C. elegans behavior analysis, and medical education. SLICE extends that portfolio into the acquisition side for large cleared specimens.
The practical implication: SLICE is not a standalone gadget. It fits a workflow where you acquire a 3D volume and then analyze it with the same vendor's reconstruction and quantification tools. For a lab already using MBF Bioscience software for neuron tracing or stereology, that integration is the main reason to look at SLICE specifically rather than a generic light sheet microscope.
When SLICE-type imaging is the right choice
Consider this class of instrument when your question requires:
| Your need | Why light sheet fits |
|---|---|
| Whole-brain or whole-organ mapping | Captures intact volumes, not sampled sections |
| 3D cell counting or distribution | Preserves spatial context across the whole sample |
| Neuronal projection tracing | Follows processes through thick cleared tissue |
| Vascular network analysis | Images connected vessel trees in 3D |
| Repeated or long acquisitions | Reduced bleaching keeps signal usable |
If your samples are standard thin sections, or if you only need 2D morphology, a conventional widefield or confocal setup is usually simpler and cheaper. Light sheet earns its place when volume and speed are the bottleneck.
What to verify before committing
The source material for this page confirms SLICE's positioning and the company's broader focus areas, but it does not publish specifications, pricing, or configuration details. Before deciding, ask MBF Bioscience directly about:
- Clearing method compatibility — which protocols the system is optimized for, since refractive index matching affects image quality.
- Resolution versus volume trade-off — the achievable resolution across a large sample, not just at the center.
- Downstream software — how acquired data flows into neuron reconstruction or stereology analysis, and whether that requires separate licenses.
- Throughput — how many samples per day, which determines whether it fits a screening-style study or only a few flagship specimens.
Because pricing and configuration are not stated in the available material, treat cost and access terms as open questions to confirm with the vendor rather than assumptions.
The bottom line
SLICE is MBF Bioscience's light sheet microscopy offering, built for fast, low-damage 3D imaging of cleared tissue and intended to feed into the company's quantitative analysis tools. It is the right category of instrument when your research depends on imaging intact volumes — whole brains, intact organs, connected vascular or neuronal networks — and the wrong one when thin-section 2D imaging already answers your question. Confirm clearing compatibility, resolution across the full volume, and software integration before you commit.