3D-Polarized Light Imaging Hub

The '3D-Polarized Light Imaging' hub at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany offers hands-on insights into brain fibre architecture research at microscopic scales based on unstained histological brain sections. The imaging technique of choice is 3D-Polarized Light Imaging (3D-PLI), which has been developed exclusively at INM-1 in recent years. It utilises the optical birefringence of nervous tissue, which is mainly induced by myelinated axons. 3D-PLI enables the study of fibre architecture (e.g. the identification and tracing of fibre pathways and tracts, and the quantification of fibre orientations and myelin distributions) in 50 µm thick brain sections. We provide tissue cryo-sectioning services, as well as 3D-PLI scanning and data analysis of small samples, to enable proof-of-concept approaches.