Fluorescence microscope image featuring individual cell as bright green dots and blue lines.

Imaging Facility

Our Imaging Facility supports scientists from both of the institute’s locations, Seewiesen and Martinsried. We help design experiments including the choice of fluorophores, clearing method, image modality and possible processing and analysis pipeline. We provide theoretical and practical trainings to students and postdocs. Furthermore, we assist in designing and purchasing commercially-available microscopes as well building complex prototypes and optical setups ranging from multi-photon microscopes to behavioral arenas.

Our instruments

For staff: Detailed information on all equipment is found in our MAX intranet

Leica STELLARIS 5 DMi8 (inverted) - This is an inverted confocal microscope suitable for a variety of samples such as neuronal cell cultures, organoids and brain slices. — **Leica STELLARIS 5 DMi8 (inverted)** - This is an inverted confocal microscope suitable for a variety of samples such as neuronal cell cultures, organoids and brain slices.

**Leica STELLARIS 5 DMi8 (inverted)** - This is an inverted confocal microscope suitable for a variety of samples such as neuronal cell cultures, organoids and brain slices.

Leica STELLARIS 5 DM6 (upright) - This upright confocal microscope is suitable to image to image fixed samples such as whole Drosophila brains or slices. — **Leica STELLARIS 5 DM6 (upright)** - This upright confocal microscope is suitable to image to image fixed samples such as whole *Drosophila* brains or slices.

**Leica STELLARIS 5 DM6 (upright)** - This upright confocal microscope is suitable to image to image fixed samples such as whole *Drosophila* brains or slices.

Zeiss LSM900 (upright) – The latest addition to the Imaging Facility is a very sensitive confocal microscope. It is particularly suitable to image aquatic model organisms thanks to its water-dipping objectives. — **Zeiss LSM900 (upright)** – The latest addition to the Imaging Facility is a very sensitive confocal microscope. It is particularly suitable to image aquatic model organisms thanks to its water-dipping objectives.

**Zeiss LSM900 (upright)** – The latest addition to the Imaging Facility is a very sensitive confocal microscope. It is particularly suitable to image aquatic model organisms thanks to its water-dipping objectives.

Zeiss AxioScan Z.1 (upright) - This is a high throughput slidescanner which can automatically image up to 100 slides in with either brightfield or epi-fluorescence illumination. — **Zeiss AxioScan Z.1 (upright)** - This is a high throughput slidescanner which can automatically image up to 100 slides in with either brightfield or epi-fluorescence illumination.

**Zeiss AxioScan Z.1 (upright)** - This is a high throughput slidescanner which can automatically image up to 100 slides in with either brightfield or epi-fluorescence illumination.

Zeiss LSM700 (upright) - Upright confocal laser scanning microscope whose short beampath from the objectives to the detectors allows the detection of dim fluorescent signals. — **Zeiss LSM700 (upright)** - Upright confocal laser scanning microscope whose short beampath from the objectives to the detectors allows the detection of dim fluorescent signals.

**Zeiss LSM700 (upright)** - Upright confocal laser scanning microscope whose short beampath from the objectives to the detectors allows the detection of dim fluorescent signals.

Leica SP8 (upright) - This upright confocal laser scanning microscope is particularly suitable to image slices thanks also to its stage with wide travel range and the Leica navigator system. — **Leica SP8 (upright)** - This upright confocal laser scanning microscope is particularly suitable to image slices thanks also to its stage with wide travel range and the Leica navigator system.

**Leica SP8 (upright)** - This upright confocal laser scanning microscope is particularly suitable to image slices thanks also to its stage with wide travel range and the Leica navigator system.

Leica SP8 Matrix (upright) - This is a versatile upright confocal laser scanning microscope. It can image a variety of fixed samples from brain slices to CLARITY-cleared specimens. — **Leica SP8 Matrix (upright) -** This is a versatile upright confocal laser scanning microscope. It can image a variety of fixed samples from brain slices to CLARITY-cleared specimens.

**Leica SP8 Matrix (upright) -** This is a versatile upright confocal laser scanning microscope. It can image a variety of fixed samples from brain slices to CLARITY-cleared specimens.

Nikon Spinning disk CSU-W1 SoRa (inverted) - This microscope is the popular system of choice for live-cell experiments, thanks to its speed and very gentle illumination. — **Nikon Spinning disk CSU-W1 SoRa (inverted)** - This microscope is the popular system of choice for live-cell experiments, thanks to its speed and very gentle illumination.

**Nikon Spinning disk CSU-W1 SoRa (inverted)** - This microscope is the popular system of choice for live-cell experiments, thanks to its speed and very gentle illumination.

Image analysis: Arivis PRO and Arivis Cloud - Our workstation has an Intel Xeon E5-2620V3 processor, 256 GB RAM, 2 TB fast SSD and a Nvidia GeForce GTX TITAN X. Users can log in remotely and analyze or visualize their data with Arivis PRO. We also have a subscription to Arivis Cloud, where users can train complex deep learning models for image segmentation. — **Image analysis: Arivis PRO and Arivis Cloud** - Our workstation has an Intel Xeon E5-2620V3 processor, 256 GB RAM, 2 TB fast SSD and a Nvidia GeForce GTX TITAN X. Users can log in remotely and analyze or visualize their data with Arivis PRO. We also have a subscription to Arivis Cloud, where users can train complex deep learning models for image segmentation.

**Image analysis: Arivis PRO and Arivis Cloud** - Our workstation has an Intel Xeon E5-2620V3 processor, 256 GB RAM, 2 TB fast SSD and a Nvidia GeForce GTX TITAN X. Users can log in remotely and analyze or visualize their data with Arivis PRO.
We also have a subscription to Arivis Cloud, where users can train complex deep learning models for image segmentation.

Olympus FV1000 with tunable MaiTai DeepSee laser unit (upright)

This microscope has a tunable femptosecond Ti:Sapphire laser and can host whole animals (e.g. Drosophila or zebrafish) as well as brain slices for functional or structural in-vivo studies.

Miltenyi Biotec Ultramicroscope II

This is a lighsheet microscope with a large chamber which can hold whole brains or small animals. It is equipped with many laser lines as well as magnification objectives ranging from 1x to 12x

STED STEDYCON microscope (upright)

This microscope can achieve superresolution imaging and is equipped with 488, 561, 633 nm lasers as well as a 775 nm STED beam.

Selection of optical and electronic devices.

Other optical devices

We also have a digital spectrometer for testing the absorption and emission spectra of fluorescent dyes, cleaning equipment for optics, an infrared viewer, a digital refractometer to measure the refractive index of fluids, and a variety of power meter and sensors. Feel free to reach out to us to borrow these devices!