3D Imaging World Cup 2025. Meet the Winners
The 3D Imaging World Cup 2025 has wrapped up with exceptional success. This year brought unprecedented creativity, advanced imaging workflows, and a wide range of biological questions explored using light sheet microscopy. Together with our partner, Molecular Instruments, we extend our appreciation to all participants for their remarkable work. The enthusiasm in the 3D imaging community continues to grow, and it is inspiring to see how rapidly the field is evolving.
We received a large number of outstanding submissions. The expertise of our judges played a central role in selecting the three winning teams. Each project demonstrated innovation, technical capability, and scientific depth, showing how broadly applicable light sheet imaging has become across neuroscience, development, and molecular biology.
First Place. ScandiCavia Team
The Scandicavia Team delivered a project that pushed the limits of TRISCO imaging. After using the mouse brain as a milestone dataset in their Science 2024 publication, the team expanded to much larger specimens, including the guinea pig brain, which is approximately seven times larger than the mouse brain. Their custom gene panel targeting Somatostatin enabled high-quality RNA staining across the entire organ. The results show that RNA staining and clearing can scale to extremely large tissues without bias. This work opens new opportunities for mapping complex brain circuits in three dimensions. Their team identity and creative presentation added to the impact of the submission.
Second Place. ZD3 Team
The ZD3 Team visualized Mex3b expression in a 3 dpf zebrafish embryo using HCR technology combined with light sheet microscopy. The dataset highlights how Mex3b influences retinal development. Early findings show that disrupting this gene affects eye growth and overall embryo morphology. This project demonstrates how RNA detection and fluorescence imaging can reveal developmental processes in fine detail, offering a strong example of how gene expression mapping supports mechanistic insights.
Third Place. UVA Team
The UVA Team presented a compelling dataset focused on digestion-impaired mouse embryo development at E11.5. The sample was imaged using Ki67 in magenta, Lgr5 in green, and Phox2B in red. The resulting 3D volume captures complex developmental patterns with clarity that cannot be appreciated in thin sections. Their work shows that light-sheet imaging reveals spatial relationships across proliferative, stem, and neuronal compartments during early development.
A community advancing light-sheet imaging
These projects exemplify the field's rapid growth. The submissions demonstrate how versatile and impactful light-sheet imaging has become across neuroscience, developmental biology, and molecular biology. They also highlight the strength of the global community driving this progress.
We thank everyone who participated, submitted work, reviewed entries, or supported the competition. We look forward to the next edition and to the discoveries that will continue to emerge.
A special thank you goes to our judges, Jonathan Liu, Adam Glaser, Ben Steventon, and Vikas Trivedi, for their expert evaluation. We are also grateful to our collaborators at Molecular Instruments for their partnership.
