Most advanced microscopes are specialists. One is tuned for tiny structures inside a single cell, another for large tissues, another for scanning hundreds of sample dishes. A lab that wants to do all three often needs three machines. On November 5, 2026, UT Southwestern Medical Center announced a light-sheet microscope designed to change that.
The instrument, called the multi-immersion oblique plane microscope (miOPM), was developed in the lab of Reto Fiolka, Ph.D., and described in Nature Methods. An international team led by UT Southwestern built it to capture 3D views of biological samples, from activity inside living cells to larger tissues.
One microscope, three kinds of job
According to the university’s announcement, traditional light-sheet microscopes are usually built like single-purpose tools. High-resolution work on tiny structures calls for an oil immersion lens. Larger tissues or organoids need water or other fluids. Rapid scanning across many dishes without touching the samples requires air between lens and sample.
The miOPM lets researchers switch objective lenses on one platform designed for oil, water or air. An adjustable zoom lens helps preserve image quality when scientists change the liquid around a sample, so the system can handle a broader range of studies without rebuilding its internal optics.
How light-sheet imaging works
Like other light-sheet microscopes, the miOPM lights up a single thin section of a sample at a time and builds a 3D picture from those slices. The release explains that this supports fast imaging while limiting unnecessary light exposure, which helps protect living samples from light-related damage. Scientists can therefore follow biological activity as it unfolds rather than looking at frozen snapshots.
What the team demonstrated
The researchers showed the platform observing moving structures on immune cells, tracking activity within cells’ energy-producing mitochondria, and examining lung and liver cancer tissue. It also worked with standard laboratory plates holding hundreds of sample wells, showing it can study many samples efficiently.
The university lists several example uses. Researchers can watch T cells extend tiny fingers called microvilli to probe target cells for antigens in real time. They can track how toxic protein clumps travel through living nerve cells. And they can move from viewing whole mini-organs, such as lung or tumor organoids, down to mitochondria in individual cells on the same platform.
The imaging in the study used two miOPM systems, one at UT Southwestern and one at Calico Life Sciences in San Francisco. The team included researchers from Australia, Germany, Poland and the U.K. as well as U.S. institutions.
What it means
The main promise is accessibility. By reducing the need for several dedicated systems and the work of reconfiguring them, the design could let more labs run sophisticated 3D imaging. The university is careful to note that the study does not quantify financial savings, so the budget benefit remains a reasonable expectation rather than a measured result.
For biomedical research, the release points out that the system can rapidly scan 384-well plates containing live human cells or mini-tumors. That could let pharmaceutical researchers watch how many drug candidates affect disease targets in 3D, and clear 3D videos of living immune cells, brain cells and lung organoids could help scientists study the causes of conditions such as Parkinson’s, cancer and respiratory diseases. These are research prospects, not clinical tools.
Fiolka called the project “a great example of how UT Southwestern is creating next-generation scientific technologies that are both high-performing and accessible,” adding that lowering costs while maintaining advanced capabilities can help more researchers accelerate discovery.
Bottom line
The miOPM is a reminder that progress in science often comes from better instruments. A single microscope that adapts to cells, organoids and plate-scale screening could widen who gets to see biology in motion. The next test is whether other labs adopt and reproduce the design.