
ALICe

State-of-the-art advanced lightsheet imaging center
Lightsheet microscopes can reveal the 3D anatomy of entire small organs. They image brain tissue down to individual neurons and offer unprecedented maps of nervous system structure and function.
Revealing 3D anatomy with lightsheet microscopy
ALICe, the Advanced Lightsheet Imaging Center, integrates a series of innovative fluorescence microscopy tools in a single pipeline to image whole organs with custom-built microscopes at high spatial and temporal resolution.
The multidisciplinary ALICe team unites expertise from physics, cell biology, neuroscience and engineering, and joins forces with research teams around the world to image and draw insights into the central and peripheral nervous systems, innervation of organs including the brain and heart as well as human brain samples. Another focus area is brain and spinal cord organization for researchers working to restore movement after paralysis or to investigate neuronal networks involved in cognition, pleasure and drug addiction.
Unlike traditional microscopy in which specimens are cut in slices with a blade before being viewed on a slide under a microscope, lightsheet microscopes optically slice samples with a sheet of light. This optical sectioning captures slivers of image without damaging the sample. The images are then combined to reconstruct a detailed three-dimensional image of a whole organ or specimen.
The ALICe pipeline
ALICe’s capabilities cover the entire pipeline, from sample preparation to image capture and post-processing. A variety of samples can be imaged from organoids to whole organs, labelled with genetically encoded fluorescent proteins or immuno-labeled with fluorescent antibodies.


1) Sample preparation: Tissue clearing for entire large samples
2) Custom-built lightsheet image acquisition: high spatial and temporal resolution imaging

3) Image and data analysis including 3D data-set exploration in virtual reality


Building connections, one cell at a time
ALICe partnerships
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We are always looking for innovative collaborations to advance the techniques, hardware and software related to ALICe.
ALICe Scientific Coordinator: Stéphane Pagès, PhD
Microscopy Facility Manager: Laura Batti, PhD
If you would like to find out more, please contact us: microscopy@wysscenter.ch




Prof. Holmaat, Unige
"Recent advances in microscopy have propelled the neurosciences into the era of connectomics, now allowing us to study single neurons with their synaptic connections in the whole brain."
Prof. Daniel Huber, Unige
"The work at ALICe allowed us to reveal the distribution and anatomy of sensory receptors with unprecedented resolution and specificity. I was stunned by the quality of the images."
Prof Fyhn - UiO
"Never before have we been able to visualise and quantify, in-depth, neuronal populations within the entire brain as we can now."



Team
Updates
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05.05.2022
Where I work: Seeing the invisible
Research technician Ivana Gantar explores the hidden microscopic world within mammalian brains using the latest lightsheet microscope technology
Insight -
24.02.2022
GliaPharm SA and the Wyss Center enter collaboration to develop new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease
The collaboration will accelerate the testing of GliaPharm’s lead molecules in preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease and further the development of neuroimaging biomarkers
Collaboration -
08.10.2021
Wyss Center announces new collaboration to improve brain tumor treatment
Translational project will create the first detailed 3D maps of human glioblastomas with an integrated ‘tissue time machine’ to predict response to therapies.
Collaboration
