Dear microscopists, this week is FILM Club week again, with yet another rather unusual talk, very interesting: *Amanda Wilson: "The Histocutter: A revolution in 3D imaging"* *Wednesday 30th of April 2014, 4.30pm, SAFB-122 (South Kensington Campus)** * Many studies can benefit from 3D microscopy, with its ability to resolve complex features or structural relationships within a volume. However, certain types of samples, such as hard tissues and whole eyes, are too large or optically dense to image with a confocal microscope. In the past, the only alternative was to conduct time-consuming serial section collection and reconstruction, or to settle for 2D microscope imaging and analysis. The Histocutter was specifically designed to address this imaging niche, by employing an automated cut-and-view approach that circumvents traditional optical limitations. Recently improved and perfected here in the Department of Bioengineering, this robotic device can perform high-throughput, high resolution, 3d histological imaging. Thousands of multi-spectral high quality images can be automatically captured and aligned, ready for quantitative analysis and 3D-visualisation. Orthogonal resolutions can approach 1um, whilst sample sizes can be relatively large (maximum 900 x 1500um), and in this respect, the Histocutter is truly unique. The Histocutter is particularly well suited to small animal studies, especially samples where the optical penetration is limited, for example bone and cartilage, and whole mouse eyes. Vascular tracers, bone growth indicators (calcein, alizarin red) and en-bloc dyes can be imaged, and unstained tissue can also be processed. Typical samples include whole organs from small animals (e.g. brain, bone, heart), engineered scaffolds seeded with cells, tissue explants and patient biopsies, including cancer biopsies, and whole lymph nodes. Other applications include the validation of Micro-CT data and integration into correlative studies. This lecture will highlight several recent research projects in which the Histocutter has played a key role, showcasing the great images that can be obtained using this system, and promoting the system as a valuable departmental resource. Contributions to Osteoarthritis, Glaucoma, Neurotechnology and Blast Centre research will be disseminated, as well as key aspects of project design, sample preparation and 3D visualization and analysis. See you there, good imaging, Martin -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Martin Spitaler, PhD* *FILM - Facility for Imaging by Light Microscopy* - Facility Manager - Sir Alexander Fleming Building, desk 401 Imperial College London / South Kensington Exhibition Road London SW7 2AZ UK Tel. +44-(0)20-759-42023 E-mail m.spitaler@imperial.ac.uk <mailto:m.spitaler@imperial.ac.uk> Website: http://imperial.ac.uk/imagingfacility