Bruker has acquired Luxendo, a privately held spin-off of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) that develops and manufactures proprietary light-sheet fluorescence microscopy instruments. Luxendo's proprietary single plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) technique significantly reduces sampling times over conventional laser scanning confocal microscopes, while reducing phototoxicity and damaging side effects on living specimens. This SPIM technology also enables the fastest scan speeds for volumetric imaging of small organisms, cell monolayers, and cleared tissue.
Headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, Luxendo was founded in September 2015. Under the technical leadership of Dr. Lars Hufnagel, Group Leader of the EMBL Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, Luxendo was able to rapidly develop robust product solutions based on the patented SPIM technology.
The SPIM microscopes significantly enhance Bruker's existing portfolio of swept-field confocal, super-resolution, and multiphoton fluorescence microscope product lines, enabling new research advances in small organism embryology, live-cell imaging, brain development and cleared brain tissue, and optogenetics applications. This acquisition is another important step forward in Bruker's portfolio transformation.
