How LED Illumination and Optical Filters Shape Spatial Biology Hardware Design

This joint presentation examines how modern LED illumination, combined with advanced filter design, is shaping multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) for spatial biology at the hardware level. Gardasevic and Fogelstrand examine why LEDs represent a “sweet spot” between lamps and lasers, offering spectral flexibility, fast switching and stable, homogeneous illumination across a large field of view. Building on this, the presentation explains how carefully engineered optical filter sets tune the LEDs, enabling cleaner multiplexing without bleed-through even across ten individual channels – eliminating the need for computer-assisted spectral unmixing.

Designed for automated system manufacturers and scientists involved in multiplex fluorescence technology, this presentation highlights how illumination and filter choices can either limit or drive hardware innovation and scientific discovery, and why getting these fundamentals right is essential for the next generation of spatial biology platforms.

About Marina Gardasevic
Marina Gardasevic, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and fluorescence-microscopy specialist with experience in advanced imaging workflows and LED illumination technologies. Drawing on her medical research background, she works closely with instrument developers to optimise illumination for demanding high-speed fluorescence techniques.

Her focus is on enabling robust application-driven illumination strategies that help the microscopy community push technical boundaries and generate higher-quality more meaningful data.

About Per Fogelstrand
Per Fogelstrand, Ph.D., is the co-founder and CEO of Kromnigon. He previously headed an academic research group in cardiovascular research, with a focus on atherosclerosis. Since his doctorate, Fogelstrand has had a long-standing engagement in histology and immunohistochemistry. His experimental work has been at the interface between biological research and technology development, and he has pioneered the development of optical filter sets for multiplex immunofluorescence and novel immunostaining approaches.

He brings experience from optical filter design, experimental pathology, and immunofluorescence-based detection methods, contributing a hands-on and innovative perspective on imaging technologies.