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Luxendo, a German startup developing laser light-sheet microscopes that it says will revolutionize biological imaging, has raised €8 million in a series A round of funding. Spun out of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and backed by the EMBL’s own technology transfer and venture arms, as well as Amsterdam-based Life Science Partners, the company plans to invest the cash in its sales and marketing teams, plus its production capacity.

The Luxendo technology is promoted as a low-phototoxicity alternative to conventional confocal microscopy. Last year the company launched its “MuVi-SPIM” and “InVi-SPIM” tools, both single-plane illumination microscopes (SPIM) said to be much faster than confocal microscopy but with comparable resolution and lower photo-damage.

Luxendo’s MuVi-SPIM microscope, equipped with two sCMOS cameras, is said to provide “superfast” 3D imaging (up to 140 fps, 512x2000 pixels) without the need for sample rotation. The InVi-SPIM microscope, equipped with an inverted optical setup, allows extremely gentle specimen handling and is therefore dedicated to cell culture and early embryonic development imaging.

Both microscopes offer a customizable laser combiner, with illumination at eight visible-range wavelengths. The laser light-sheet is generated by beam scanning, and the InVi-SPIM equipment features high-speed “Orca” cameras from Hamamatsu offering 2048 x 2048 pixel resolution.

The firm says that it is also planning to introduce a new instrument for quantitative fluorescence imaging this year. This novel instrument is in its final development phase.

Andreas Pfuhl, Luxendo's CEO, said that interest in the microscopes from both academic and industrial customers was “greatly exceeding” the company’s expectations.