Researchers demonstrate the powers of their brand-new Multi Camera Array Microscope (MCAM), a high-speed, 3D, gigapixel microscope. The device is giving researchers worldwide new opportunities by capturing 3D movies of the behavior of numerous freely swimming zebrafish or the grooming activity of fruit flies in close to cellular-level detail across a very broad field of view.
The most recent iteration of Multi Camera Array Microscope uses 54 faster and more precise lenses than the prototype that discovered Waldo. Innovative software allows the microscope to take 3D measurements, provide more detail at smaller scales, and produce smoother movies, building on recent work in close cooperation. However, the MCAM’s highly parallelized architecture poses data processing difficulties because a few minutes of recording can generate over a terabyte of data. According to the paper’s lead author, researchers have created novel algorithms that effectively handle these incredibly large video datasets. The algorithms combine the video streams from all the cameras and machine learning to recover 3D behavioral information across location and time.
Researchers observe how zebrafish react when given neuroactive substances. Researchers can find novel potential treatments or better understand current ones by searching for behavioral changes from various drug classes. Thanks to this camera, the group describes fascinating movements they had never seen in the article.
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