Research News
GlowTracker: making fluorescence microscopy easier to build, use, and understand
The team led by our group leader Monika Scholz has developed GlowTracker, a modular fluorescence tracking microscope that allows researchers to observe cellular activity and behavior in small, freely moving animals at the same time. Built entirely from commercially available components, the system can be assembled within a few hours and does not require specialized fabrication. This makes GlowTracker a flexible and accessible tool for neuroethology, where researchers often need to connect behavior with activity in neurons, muscles, or other biological structures.
GlowTracker has become a powerful platform for our research. We now use five different setups, each tailored to specific behavioral experiments. Because it is easy to build and inexpensive, it enables students and early-career researchers to explore how the system works with confidence. This helps us teach optics both in the classroom and in the lab. Euphrasie Ramahefarivo, first author
In their study, the team demonstrates how GlowTracker can be used across different model organisms: from calcium signals in C. elegans and muscle activity in Drosophila larvae to predator-prey interactions between nematodes. Its modular design supports different imaging modes, including brightfield, single-color, and dual-color fluorescence imaging.
To make the system broadly reusable, the team provides an online GlowTracker resource with documentation, software, a detailed manual, and a comprehensive parts list. This allows researchers, educators, and students to rebuild and adapt the setup using commercially available components: https://scholz-lab.github.io/GlowTracker/
Beyond its use in research, GlowTracker is also well suited for training early-career researchers. By building the system themselves, users gain hands-on insight into key principles of modern microscopy, including light paths, filters, fluorescence, cameras, image processing, and tracking software. In this way, GlowTracker not only helps generate data, it also helps researchers understand how such data are created. At the MPINB, the system can contribute to the training of new doctoral researchers by introducing them to core methods used in neuroethological research.
Read the full article here.
Curious how GlowTracker is built? The time-lapse video below shows the assembly of a modular single-color setup, one example of the GlowTracker platform. The dual-color version follows the same building principle and can be assembled just as straightforwardly.
