The C. elegans nematode is one the most widely studied model organisms in biological research and is routinely used to investigate the development and functioning of the nervous system.

However, images from inside the specimen are often degraded by wavefront aberrations caused by the non-uniformity of the specimen refractive index. Adaptive optics (AO) offers a means of correcting these aberrations to restore optimal imaging.

We demonstrate closed loop aberration correction in a widefield / confocal microscope using a wavefront sensor and deformable mirror and show how images of the C. elegans nervous system are improved by the use of AO.