Hiiragi group and Prevedel group collaborate with Prospective Instruments to pioneer intravital multiphoton microscopy for early embryo research
An interdisciplinary effort to revolutionize imaging of early mammalian development through next-generation intravital microscopy
13 Nov 2025
Prof. Takashi Hiiragi, Hubrecht Institute, and Dr. Robert Prevedel, EMBL Heidelberg.
Prof. Takashi Hiiragi (Hubrecht Institute), Dr. Robert Prevedel (European Molecular Biology Laboratory), and Dr. Lukas Krainer (Prospective Instruments) have launched an interdisciplinary collaboration to develop a novel intravital microscopy platform for studying mammalian embryo implantation.
Prof. Takashi Hiiragi explains, “Our research explores how self-organization drives the emergence of forms and patterns in early mammalian embryos. By combining genetics, microscopy, biophysics, engineering, and modeling, we investigate how a seemingly simple cluster of cells develops into organized structures.”
Prof. Takashi Hiiragi continues, “To study embryo development in the uterus, we established a new interdisciplinary collaboration with the Prevedel group at EMBL Heidelberg and the industry partner Prospective Instruments to build the intravital microscope. We have extensively tested each microscope component to identify and observe the embryo-uterus interaction, and optimized and finalized its design.
The mammalian implantation process is largely enigmatic, and the dynamic embryo-uterus interaction and its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. This new intravital microscope will provide a fresh window and potentially transform the research of early mammalian development. Fortunately, Prospective Instruments could provide the level of customizable design we needed to enable our imaging research.”
Dr. Lukas Krainer added, “We are excited to participate in a project that truly pushes the limits of multiphoton imaging by combining such diverse imaging modalities. For many years, we have been supporting researchers with our state-of-the-art multiphoton microscopy solutions. Now, by integrating high-resolution spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) in an automated and user-friendly system, we enable researchers to gain insights from their samples that were not possible before.”