Author Spotlight: Investigating Asymmetric Cell Division Dynamics: A Protocol for Live-Imaging of Drosophila Larval Brain Explants

Our research focuses on studying the impact of asymmetric cell division or ACD, on stem cell proliferation and differentiation. We employ Drosophila neural stem cells or neuroblasts as a model to understand the mechanisms, regulations, and impacts of asymmetric cell division on development and neurogenesis. The recent developments in artificial intelligence have been making major strides in image quantification and analysis, which has significantly advanced the field of life cell imaging.

Maintaining sample quality for a long-term movie is a long-standing challenge. While it’s insightful to observe a sample for eight to 10 hours, logistical constraints, like the sample’s imaging requirements and available imaging tools, make it difficult. Our protocol addresses this by demonstrating long-term imaging without impacting the sample’s quality.

Our technique could be easily adopted and applied to the field by newcomers. With some time and practice, one can feasibly generate short and long-term movies, which have the potential to yield insightful and meaningful data.