Wu, Y. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. doi:10.1038/nbt.2713 (13 October 2013).

The fast imaging speed and low light doses associated with light-sheet fluorescence microscopy are making it the method of choice for volumetric imaging of living samples, and performance improvements continue to be made that open up new applications. Wu et al. describe an improvement to their previously reported inverted selective-plane illumination microscopy (iSPIM) light-sheet microscope design. By alternating illumination and collection between the two perpendicularly oriented objectives and fusing the resulting views, dual-view iSPIM (diSPIM) greatly improves on the speed and resolution of iSPIM. The capabilities of diSPIM were demonstrated by high-speed volumetric imaging of microtubules in living cells and developmental processes in Caenorhabditis elegans at the level of labeled nuclei and neurite extension in pre- and post-twitching embryos.