Developed in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, the CELLview Slide consists of a transparent plastic slide fitted with a detachable black compartmentalization tray and glass lid. The tray is divided into ten round wells the same size as a standard 96-well plate, which enables users to add cells and reagents to the CELLview Slide using a standard multichannel pipettor. The round-well design helps reduce meniscus effects, thus ensuring even cell distribution and optimum microscopic analysis. The black compartmentalization reduces cross talk between adjacent wells during fluorescence microscopy and protects against undesired bleaching, while predetermined alpha-numeric well-coding ensures samples are not mixed up.

The integrated optical glass displays virtually no autofluorescence and ensures total planarity, which is so crucial for maximum-resolution automatic microscopy. To promote optimum growth of extremely sensitive cells, the CELLview Slide can also be supplied with a special surface coating. After detaching the compartmentalization tray, the CELLview Slide can be used as a standard slide and be mounted, for example, or put into long-term storage without taking up too much space.