Sharing: A simple automatic liquid dispense arrangement (SALDA) for timelapse microscopy. -> A SALDA enables accurate and repeatable liquid perturbations during timelapse microscopy and avoids environmental disturbance and vibrations from the user! Details here: amsikking.github.io/SALDA_for_ti...

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "W" scientist! (23/26) -> "W" is for Worm, Watercress, and...Watt? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Pro tip! As much as I like the 55deg #Snouty microscope configuration (previous post) it's hard to align and keep aligned! -> Consider using pre-designed O2-O3 optomechanics and an eyepiece to help avoid collisions during the set up! github.com/amsikking/SO...

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "V" scientist! (22/26) -> "V" is for Viper, Vanilla, and...Volta? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessan... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

I'm excited to be hiring an intern to develop new fluorescence-based assays for alpha synuclein aggregation at Calico during summer 2026 😃 🔬 If you're a current PhD student who loves microscopy, unnatural amino acids, and/or synuclein biophysics, please apply! www.calicolabs.com/careers/?gh_...

The ASI machine shop made a nice replica model of the AMS-AGY v3 objective for us to have in the #CellBio2025 booth. The first of the real ones will be ready by the end of the year.

Hands down my favorite #Snouty microscope configuration! -> The air objective with a 55deg light-sheet. It's not the highest resolution version, but the convenience of the air objective, the large field of view and the steep sectioning of the light-sheet make it a pleasure to use! #AIRR #miOPM

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "U" scientist! (21/26) -> "U" is for Unicorn, Ugli, and...Umov? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Fast, gentle, 3D and high resolution makes miOPM ideal for timelapse microscopy of complex neural networks! -> Here's a unique iNeuron-iAstrocyte coculture imaged by github.com/gav-sturm and carefully prepared by @kunalshroff.bsky.social from the @kampmann.bsky.social lab. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "T" scientist! (20/26) -> "T" is for Tarantula, Turnip, and...Taylor? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_T... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Has anyone had this problem? A hydrophobic water objective? The objective is great but we struggle to keep the water on the lens... -> Maybe a solution is to paint a circle around the nose with a 'hydrophobic barrier pap pen" (link below). Has anyone tried this? www.fishersci.com/shop/product...

Another huge advantage of miOPM is that it's gentle! A light-sheet microscope that's compatible with standard slides and multi-well plates! -> Here we show 3D mitochondrial membrane potential in mammalian cells (GFP/RFP for mito, Cy5 for DNA). The cells move around freely! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "S" scientist! (19/26) -> "S" is for Squirrel, Strawberry, and...Snell? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willebr... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

A huge advantage of miOPM is 3D imaging with an air objective (previous post), but for extra depth you can also use a water objective! -> Here's mouse alveolar organoids with Muc1 AT2 cells (green), TOM20 mitochondria (blue), RAGE AT1 cells (gray) and DAPI (magenta). doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "R" scientist! (18/26) -> "R" is for Rabbit, Radish, and...Raman? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._R... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

The future of High-Content Imaging has arrived. -> Ultra-fast 3D imaging of multi-well plates at high resolution using an air objective! See previous posts and the new miOPM preprint for details: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "Q" scientist! (17/26) -> "Q" is for Quail, Quince, and...Quinn? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Q... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Playing around with how to represent volume in #Snouty light sheet data. Here is a dividing hiPSC with endogenously tagged histone in all three orthogonal projections. Bluer is further away. If anything, it distracts from politics.

We present multi-immersion Oblique Plane microscope (miOPM), a light-sheet platform that can be adapted to a wide range of applications, from sensitive live cell imaging to imaging organs and cleared tissues. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The culmination of many years work. One of the most advanced light-sheet microscopes in the world! -> A large field of view Snouty light-sheet microscope, with any immersion remote refocus and real-time multi-angle projections! For details see previous posts and here: github.com/amsikking/HT...

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "P" scientist! (16/26) -> "P" is for Pelican, Pineapple, and...Planck? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Pla... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

@tanner-fadero.bsky.social told me there was a discussion about the unofficial name for #snouty V3. We have had Mr. Snouty and King Snouty, and there were people suggesting Emperor Snouty. I think it is time for a Lady or EMPRESS snouty. I have created Art to support this.

What if we could get good 3D imaging in 'any' sample refractive index? Previously we showed how remote refocus optics can get good 3D imaging in a 'watery' sample (RI=1.33) with any immersion objective. -> Here we show how a zoom lens can adjust remote refocus optics to any sample refractive index!

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "O" scientist! (15/26) -> "O" is for Octopus, Orange, and...Ohm? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Ohm Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Thrilled to share our new work in Cell Reports Methods: MCT-ASLM, a multiscale light-sheet microscopy platform that captures biology from tissue landscapes down to organelles, revealing rare events like sparse neurons and micrometastases. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

What if we could use 'any' immersion objective and get good 3D imaging? Normally we can't as we must refractive index match the immersion to the sample (previous post). -> However, I realized a few years ago that we can get good 3D imaging with any immersion using remote refocus optics!

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "N" scientist! (14/26) -> "N" is for Narwhal, Nasturtium, and...Newton? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_N... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Some first raw (not deskewed) data of live human induced pluripotent stem cells from #Snouty now ready for some serious live imaging. Light sheet moving at a 38-degree angle through the cell layer; coverslip is on the bottom.

Bluesky is now the platform of choice for the scientific community. From @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social on @arstechnica.com arstechnica.com/science/2025...

👀 What if your flow cytometer could see the invisible? Our new preprint introduces single-molecule flow cytometry (smFC), pushing detection sensitivity 10–80× beyond conventional flow cytometry. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Why use water or oil immersion objectives instead of air? 1) The higher refractive index (RI) ups the numerical aperture and can improve resolution. 2) It can greatly improve 3D imaging! -> Here we show how 'standard focus' only works well if the RI of the immersion matches the RI of the sample.

How many photons are in a GFP? — more than last year, and more than you thought. Here's a simple, cheap, and practical method to break a fundamental limit in fluorescence microscopy. But it only works in light sheet!

Here's a six-month time-lapse of me building the single objective light sheet fluorescence microscope at the UCSF Center for Advanced Light Microscopy! Also pictured is @nicostuurman.bsky.social and @kahsage.bsky.social. #snouty

Before inventing Any Immersion Remote Refocus (AIRR) microscopy, which enables air objectives to image deep into liquids, I tried other ways to alleviate the immersion problem... -> He's an objective 'hat' I designed to wick oil towards the sample for multi-well plate imaging. AIRR is better!

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "M" scientist! (13/26) -> "M" is for Mouse, Mandarin, Mango and...Maxwell? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Is there a 'go to' solution for this? -> A common problem in time-laps microscopy is wanting to image a liquid perturbation (e.g. adding a drug). This is often done manually with a pipette, is hard to time/execute well, upsets incubation and disturbs imaging. Is a programable syringe pump the way?

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "L" scientist! (12/26) -> "L" is for Lemur, Lemon and...Lorentz? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

The power of custom opto-mechanics AND custom software! -> Here's a RAMM epi (REPI) microscope I put together. It's just a 2D fluorescence microscope with fast triggering that's mobile and relatively easy to modify. The real advantage here is full programmatic control! github.com/amsikking/RE...

If you've ever wanted to know what the actin filaments on the scales in a developing moth wing look like in 3D, here you go! Kyle DeMarr from @mullinslab.bsky.social acquired these beautiful data on the single objective light sheet at the UCSF Center for Advanced Light Microscopy. #snouty

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "K" scientist! (11/26) -> "K" is for Kangaroo, Kiwifruit and...Kirchhoff? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Still my favorite animation from the Snouty light-sheet project 😎

Production has started for a new #Snoutscope objective, AMS-AGY v3. It has significantly larger FOV and some other tweaks from v1 and v2. Currently accepting pre-orders. The price will need to increase modestly after deliveries start late October.

The power of basic optical design knowledge and CAD! -> Here's a fast laser point scanner that connects to a commercial microscope. The design, build and alignment are relatively simple. Much harder is agile software control that integrates with the existing system... Custom hardware is hard!

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "J" scientist! (10/26) -> "J" is for Jellyfish, Jackfruit and...Joule? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Nuts and bolts! A good stock and organizational system pays dividends over the years... -> Here's a good @thorlabs.bsky.social system with 19" racks (RK3884), shelves (RK4101), boxes (S19228) and trays (www.schallercorporation.com). If you can bare the initial setup effort it's well worth it! ;)

Too senior to present a poster? Think again... -> Here's a poster from few months back on the Snouty light-sheet microscope. The content was published years ago, but compared to talks I've given, the friendly and informal poster environment brought more people forward with questions and discussion!

Celebrating science with art! Every 2 weeks for 1 year, the full alphabet. Like, reply or repost with your favorite "I" scientist! (9/26) -> "I" is for Iguana, Iceberg lettuce and...Ioffe? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_I... Art by @annesikking.bsky.social (my Mum).

Has anyone used XIMEA cameras for fluorescence microscopy? For example this model from the xiB-64 series looks great. They're spec'd as CMOS but comparing to similar sCMOS models from other manufacturers the difference isn't obvious. Am I missing something? www.ximea.com/products/pci...

Speed AND less data are the real advantage of 2D projections from a Snouty light-sheet microscope! (previous post) -> Here's a zebrafish heart from the @retof.bsky.social lab. The heart beats quickly but the GFP is sparse so 2 orthogonal projections can reveal the dynamics! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

When to design and make custom optics? The short answer is... only when absolutely necessary! -> Here's a tiny achromat and knife edge mirror combination (+ custom mechanics) that makes an image relay with a scanning microelectromechanical (MEMS) mirror at the pupil. Stock parts couldn't be found!