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How to gain deep insights into the development of cancer using spectrally tuneable 2-photon microscopy
Understand the complexity of cancer spread by using the right labelling method and imaging techniques.
About the Application Note
Lineage tracing in a confetti animal model combined with multiphoton imaging using the STELLARIS 8 DIVE allows researchers to follow the progression of cancer cells whereas multiphoton imaging is an adequate technique for intravital imaging and deep penetration into tumor tissue.
4Tune, the spectral non-descanned detector in the STELLARIS 8 DIVE, is flexible and enables an optimal setup of detection ranges for each fluoropore, simplifying complex experiments significantly.
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We report about two-photon activation of a photoactivatable derivative of the Aequorea Victoria green fluorescent protein (pa-GFP). This special form of the molecule increases its fluorescence…Read article
The History of Stereo Microscopy – Part I
The 17th century in Europe was marked by the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The population lived in constant fear and poverty. Marauding hordes wandered the countryside; failed harvests, plagues,…Read article
The History of Stereo Microscopy – Part II
For millennia, glass was admired for its beauty and the artful objects that could be created with it. With the rise of the exact sciences, however, researchers became more demanding with regard to…Read article
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Until the middle of the 19th century, microscopes were hand-crafted custom instruments. At the time, it was not possible to predict the properties of a lens in advance, so lenses were shaped and…Read article
CLEM: Combining the Strengths of Light and Electron Microscopy
In recent years light microscopy studies have been dominated by live cell imaging while electron microscopy has been used for high-resolution studies. Latterly, there has been increasing interest in…Read article
Detection and Characterization of Hepatic Engraftment of Embryonic Stem Derived Cells by Fluorescent Stereomicroscopy
Embryonic stem (ES) cells have been investigated as a potential replacement therapy for failed organs, such as the liver. However, detection of hepatic engraftment from candidate stem cells has been…Read article
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For the study of minute marine organisms such as free swimming larvae or bottom dwelling invertebrates it is a great advantage to have modern microscopic equipment in close proximity to the natural…Read article
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Artificial illumination can harm hypogean monuments by inducing the uncontrolled growth of photosynthetic biofilms (green sickness or maladie verte). With the aim of preventing biodeterioration or…Read article
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Quantitative measurement method based on FRAP and FRAPa using multiphoton microscopy. We present a new convenient method for quantitative three-dimensionally resolved diffusion measurements based on…Read article
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Wayne Buttermore, Manager Regional Sales Industry at Leica Microsystems, interviewed Skip Palenik to hear his perspective on the benefits of continuing education in forensic science.Read article
Forensic Detection of Sperm from Sexual Assault Evidence
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Our interview partner on the topic of Pioneering is Prf. Stefan Hell, a scientific member of the Max Planck Society and director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen,…Read article
Apical Cargo Traverses Endosomal Compartments on the Passage to the Cell Surface
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High Data Output and Automated 3D Correlative Light–Electron Microscopy Method
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In Vivo Labeling Method Using a Genetic Construct for Nanoscale Resolution Microscopy
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State-of-the-Art Microscope Enables New Vitreoretinal Surgery Technique
In pars plana vitrectomy, three ocular incisions are normally made. Thanks to the superb optics and the unique illumination concept of the Leica M844 F40, Dr. Luca Cappuccini from Reggio Emilia…Read article
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CARS and Confocal
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ATP Changes the Fluorescence Lifetime of Cyan Fluorescent Protein via an Interaction with His148
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Users Report on the Relevance of Laser Microdissection for Their Research Results
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Good Vibrations
In recent years, new molecular imaging techniques, such as coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy (CARS), have been developed for rapid vibrational imaging of living cells.Read article
TIRF Microscopy of the Apical Membrane of Polarized Epithelial Cells
Application of TIRF microscopy (Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence) allows the visualization of structures at the apical surface of polarized epithelial cells that have been hidden in conventional…Read article
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A combination of widefield imaging techniques and image segmentation analysis enable researchers to map learning-induced functional changes in individual synapses throughout the hippocampus.Read article
Choose Your Excitation Wavelength
Although time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is the method of choice for fluorescence lifetime quantification, it requires dedicated instrumentation including a pulsed laser source, a…Read article
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Polarization Contrast
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Photo Effects of Light
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An Introduction to Fluorescence
Fluorescence is widely used in microscopy and an important tool for observing the distribution of specific molecules. Most molecules in cells do not fluoresce. They therefore have to be marked with…Read article
Integrated Modulation Contrast (IMC)
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Differential Interference Contrast (DIC)
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Phase Contrast
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Optical Contrast Methods
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Nanoscopy in a Living Multicellular Organism Expressing GFP
We report superresolution fluorescence microscopy in an intact living organism, namely Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fusion proteins. We also…Read article
Confocal Optical Section Thickness
Confocal microscopes are employed to optically slice comparably thick samples.Read article
Pinhole Controls Optical Slicing
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Applications of Laser Microdissection
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Find the Needle in the Haystack
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Brighter Fluorescence by Resonant Scanning
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Metallography with Color and Contrast
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Mosaic Images
Confocal laser scanning microscopes are widely used to create highly resolved 3D images of cells, subcellular structures and even single molecules. Still, an increasing number of scientists are…Read article
Microwave Assisted Rapid Diagnosis of Plant Virus Diseases by Transmission Electron Microscopy
Investigations of ultrastructural changes induced by viruses are often necessary to clearly identify viral diseases in plants. With conventional sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy…Read article
Super-Resolution GSDIM Microscopy
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Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)
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Neurobiology and Microscopy
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Confocal Excitation
Fluorescence excitation needs specifically colored light. In confocal microscopy, multiline lasers or laser batteries are classically used. This requires devices that pick the requested lines fitting…Read article
Spectral Imaging
To separate fractions of the emission for recording channels that reproduce the emission of individual fluorochromes, it is necessary to spatially disperse the emission spectrally. This is possible by…Read article
Ratiometric Imaging
Many fundamental functions of a cell strongly depend on delicate, but nevertheless dynamic balances of ions (e.g. calcium, magnesium), voltage potentials and pH between the cell’s cytosol and the…Read article
FLCS – Advances in Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy
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Video Tutorial: How to Optimize Sample Preparation for GSD Microscopy
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Fluorescent Proteins - From the Beginnings to the Nobel Prize
Fluorescent proteins are the fundament of recent fluorescence microscopy and its modern applications. Their discovery and consequent development was one of the most exciting innovations for life…Read article
Region-Specific Gene Expression in Adult Mouse CNS Tissues
Different areas of the Central Nervous System (CNS) display a specific and selective gene expression profile. Here, we used the Laser Microdissection system Leica LMD6500 to study region-specific mRNA…Read article
How to Study Protein Recruitment to DNA Lesions by a Combination of UV Laser and White Light Laser
Understanding how DNA lesions are optimally repaired is of functional significance, especially from the view of genome karyotype stability.Read article
Fluorescence Live-Cell Imaging Techniques
The understanding of complex and/or fast cellular dynamics is an important step for exploring biological processes. Therefore, today’s life science research is increasingly focused on dynamic…Read article
Dual Channel STED Nanoscopy of Lytic Granules on Actin Filaments in Natural Killer Cells
Natural killer (NK) cells are innate immune effectors that eliminate diseased and tumorigenic targets through the directed secretion of specialized secretory lysosomes, termed lytic granules. This…Read article
Sharp Live Images from the Mouse Brain
To explore the most intricate structures of the brain in order to decipher how it functions – Stefan Hell’s team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen has…Read article
Visualization of the Natural Killer Cell Immune Synapse by Super-Resolution Nanoscopy
Natural killer (NK) cells are innate immune effectors that recognize and kill virally infected and tumorigenic cells. Central to their effector function is the formation of an immunological synapse…Read article
Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy
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Applications of TIRF Microscopy in Life Science Research
The special feature of TIRF microscopy is the employment of an evanescent field for fluorophore excitation. Unlike standard widefield fluorescence illumination procedures with arc lamps, LEDs or…Read article
TIRF Microscopy Explores Cellular Transport Processes
Due to their special role in organ function and the exchange of biological components some body cells developed certain polarization characteristics. These are reflected in differences of their plasma…Read article
Introduction to Live-Cell Imaging
The understanding of complex and fast cellular dynamics is an important step to get insight into biological processes. Therefore, today’s life science research more and more demands studying…Read article
Basic Principles of Luminescence
There are a lot of light-emitting processes occurring in nature. Luminescence is an umbrella term for those kinds of events where light emission is not the result of high temperatures. This article…Read article
Fluorescent Proteins – Introduction and Photo Spectral Characteristics
The prospects of fluorescence microscopy changed dramatically with the discovery of fluorescent proteins in the 1950s. The starting point was the detection of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria green…Read article
Scientific Illustration and Animation for Research Scientists
One of the crucial tasks of a research scientist is reporting and communicating about his work. This is vital for cutting edge research; it is crucial to gain insights from other experts, to get a…Read article
Quantitative Fluorescence
Seeing is believing – and measuring is knowing. Microscopes generate images that are not only used for illustration, but are also subject to quantification. More advanced techniques use illumination…Read article
Order versus Disorder
In modern biomaterial design the generation of an environment mimicking some of the extracellular matrix features is envisaged to support molecular cross-talk between cells and scaffolds during tissue…Read article
Four Paintings Magnified
Through a period of two years an international research team has studied four almost identical paintings from the 16th century. The four paintings examined are alike yet different variations on a…Read article
Controlling the TIRF Penetration Depth is Mandatory for Reproducible Results
The main feature of total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is the employment of an evanescent wave for the excitation of fluorophores instead of using direct light. A property of the…Read article
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The optical microscope has been a standard tool in life science as well as material science for more than one and a half centuries now. To use this tool economically and effectively, it helps a lot to…Read article
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Exotic fruits and sun-kissed vegetables – we have long been accustomed to a huge selection of culinary delicacies that are available fresh in stores on a daily basis. Sometimes, however, these goods…Read article
Postlipolytic Insulin-dependent Remodeling of Micro Lipid Droplets in Adipocytes
Despite the lipolysis–lipogenesis cycle being a fundamental process in adipocyte biology, very little is known about the morphological changes that occur during this process. The remodeling of lipid…Read article
Fluorescent Dyes
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AntWeb Documents the World of Ants
Every ant has a story to tell. And what better person to tell it than Brian Fisher? Fisher is an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences and Project Manager of AntWeb.org. The internet…Read article
White Light Laser
The perfect light source for confocal microscopes in biomedical applications has sufficient intensity, tunable color and is pulsed for use in lifetime fluorescence. Furthermore, it should offer means…Read article
Image Processing for Widefield Microscopy
Fluorescence microscopy is a modern and steadily evolving tool to bring light to current cell biological questions. With the help of fluorescent proteins or dyes it is possible to make discrete…Read article
How to Clean Microscope Optics
Clean microscope optics are essential for obtaining good microscope images. If they are dirty, the microscope should be cleaned to avoid a loss of quality. If you decide to do this yourself, you…Read articleWidefield Super-Resolution with GSDIM
Great advancements in biology have been possible by using fluorescence microscopy. So far, the resolution of the images was limited due to physical constraints. In the past couple of years, new…Read article
CARS Microscopy: Imaging Characteristic Vibrational Contrast of Molecules
Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is a technique that generates images based on the vibrational signatures of molecules. This imaging methods does not require labeling, yet…Read article
Digital Camera Technologies for Scientific Bio-Imaging
This four-part series of articles published in Microscopy and Analysis covers the factors to consider in choosing a camera among CCD, EMCCD, and scientific-grade CMOS camera technologies for…Read article
Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy ( FCS ) measures fluctuations of fluorescence intensity in a sub-femtolitre volume to detect such parameters as the diffusion time, number of molecules or dark…Read article
FRET with FLIM
FLIM combines lifetime measurements with imaging: lifetimes obtained for each image pixel are color-coded to produce additional image contrast. Thus, FLIM delivers information about the spatial…Read article
Label-free FLIM
Many biological samples exhibit autofluorescence. Its often broad spectra can interfere with fluorescent labeling strategies. This application letter demonstrates how autofluorescence can serve as an…Read article
Video Tutorial: How to Align the Bulb of a Fluorescence Lamp Housing
The traditional light source for fluorescence excitation is a fluorescence lamp housing with mercury burner. A prerequisite for achieving bright and homogeneous excitation is the correct centering and…Read article
Video Tutorial: How to Change the Bulb of a Fluorescence Lamp Housing
When applying fluorescence microscopy in biological applications, a lamp housing with mercury burner is the most common light source. This video tutorial shows how to change the bulb of a traditional…Read article
Even Insect Fragments Throw Light on How Crimes Are Committed: How Forensic Biologist Dr. Mark Benecke Gains Insights
Many people know Germany’s most famous forensic biologist, Dr. Mark Benecke from Cologne, from TV documentaries showing how crimes are solved. Benecke is a welcome guest on talk shows on topics such…Read article
Taking the Long View
In exploring how embryos take shape, John Wallingford has identified a key pathway involved in vertebrate development – and human disease.Read article
Trends in Microscopy
There are digital cameras, digital TV sets, digital picture frames, digital schools on the internet. Cryptologists design digital signatures, communication researchers speak of digital identity.…Read article
3D Visualization of Surface Structures
One of the main features of a digital microscope is the speed and ease with which it enables surface models to be created of macroscopic and microscopic structures. In a qualitative evaluation, these…Read article
Comparison of the RNA Quality of Native Tissue Samples with Tissue Samples after UV Laser Microdissection
Due to its instability, RNA is generally more difficult to work with than DNA. RNA does not have the stability of the DNA double helix. To obtain the best results when dealing with RNA it is essential…Read article
K-ATP Channels in Dopamine Substantia Nigra Neurons Control Bursting and Novelty-induced Exploration
Phasic activation of the dopamine (DA) midbrain system in response to unexpected reward or novelty is critical for adaptive behavioral strategies. This activation of DA midbrain neurons occurs via a…Read article
Developments in Multiphoton Excitation Microscopy
Basics, history, and applications of multiphoton microscopy. Honouring Goeppert-Mayer’s prediction of simultaneous two-photon absorption by an atom or molecule reported in the 1930s in her PhD…Read article
Nobel Prize 2012 in Physiology or Medicine for Stem Cell Research
The Nobel Prize recognizes two scientists who discovered that mature, specialised cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body. Their findings…Read article
Nobel Prize 2012 in Chemistry for Studies of G-Protein-Coupled Receptors
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2012 to Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka for studies of G-protein–coupled receptors.Read article
Optogenetics
Optogenetics is a technique that allows light-controlled responses of transfected cells. The cells are genetically modified by introduction of genes that code for light-induced channels or ion pumps.…Read article
Abstracts of the 2nd European Super-Resolution User-Club Meeting
The 2nd meeting of the Leica Super-resolution User club was held from September 25 to 27, 2012 in collaboration with the Science for Life Laboratory at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. …Read article
Stem Cells in the Aging Process – the Signal Protein p53 as "Guardian of the Genome"
The physiological process of aging is an elementary part of life. The processes responsible for the aging process and the effect they have is one of the key focuses of biomedical research. Dr. Yvonne…Read article
Body in Balance
Nobody is the same. Whether large or small, well- or slightly built, left- or right-handed, everyone has different demands of the tool they work with for many hours a day. This is particularly true of…Read article
50 Years of Image Analysis
Modern image analysis systems perform highly sophisticated image processing functions on images from an automated microscope and digital camera. 50 years ago, the first image analysis system was…Read article
Quantitative One-Step Protocol to Detect Transcripts in Laser Microdissected Samples
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are an essential feature of the biology and ecology of most terrestrial plants and, as biofertilizers, AM fungi are an emerging issue in many projects focused on…Read article
Integrative Open-Source Software for Image Analysis in Biology
Imaging techniques are indispensable in many fields of life sciences today. With state-of-the-art optics and metrology, they provide hundreds of gigabytes of still images and videos. Correspondingly,…Read article
Tubulin Modifications Affect Monolayer Formation and Apical Trafficking in Epithelial Cells
The development and maintenance of polarized epithelial cells requires the establishment of complicated subcellular machinery. We studied the role of post-translational tubulin modifications within…Read article
Brief Introduction to Critical Point Drying
One of the uses of the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is in the study of surface morphology in biological applications which requires the preservation of the surface details of a specimen. Samples…Read article
Atomic Force Microscopy Study of a Stretched Impact Copolymer
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool in the suite of nanoscale characterization techniques that provides a variety of information including topography, mechanical properties, and…Read article
Dry Ultrathin Sectioning Combined With High Pressure Freezing
We have used cultured UMR106-01 osteoblastic cells to investigate the process of bone mineralization. UMR106-01 cells as well as primary calvarial bone cells assembly spherical extracellular…Read article
Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy: Beyond the Flatlands
Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy (LISH-M) is a true fluorescence optical sectioning technique, first described by Heinrich Siedentopf in 1902 under the name of Ultramicroscopy. Light sheet…Read article
Mitochondrial DNA Molecules are Packaged Individually
At the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne founded in 2008, three departments are working on the molecular, physiological and evolutionary mechanisms of the ageing of cells, tissue…Read article
Widefield Calcium Imaging with Calcium Indicator Fura2
In eukaryotic cells Ca2+ is one of the most widespread second messengers used in signal transduction pathways. Intracellular levels of Ca2+ are usually kept low, as Ca2+ often forms insoluble…Read article
University of Wollongong Electron Microscopy Centre
The University of Wollongong has a diverse range of materials research programs that includes metallurgy for mining, manufacturing, steel making and transport; polymers for solar cells, energy storage…Read article
Gates Open for Improved Confocal Fluorescence and Super-Resolution STED
True confocal microscope systems feature single-point illumination and single-point detection. The method is called "optical sectioning" since the generated image contains only information from the…Read article
A Word on Cathodoluminescence
Cathodoluminescence microanalysis is an emerging technique that is fast gaining popularity in the world of materials science. CL is a light emission phenomena resulting from the electron beam…Read article
Perusing Alternatives for Automated Staining of TEM Thin Sections
Contrast in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is mainly produced by electron scattering at the specimen: Structures that strongly scatter electrons are referred to as electron dense and appear as…Read article
Molecular Developmental Biology: Norwegian Marine Research Scientists Solve the Mysteries of Evolution
The human nervous system is an infinitely complex network consisting of some 100 billions of neurons. It is the result of many-faceted evolutionary processes spanning millions of years which, like the…Read article
Capturing Neurotransmitter Receptors and Ion Channels
Neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels in the central nervous system are localized to synaptic and extrasynaptic membrane compartments of pre- and postsynaptic elements of neurons. The impact of…Read article
The White Confocal
Modern biomedical research is currently dominated by imaging and measuring with optical microscopes. One branch of the microscopy technology is confocal microscopy. For correlation purposes,…Read article
The White Confocal – Spectral Gaps Closed
This article summarizes the development and differences in design and functionality of confocal technology as far as spectral properties are concerned, from classical filter-based excitation and…Read article
STED and GSDIM: Diffraction Unlimited Resolution for all Types of Fluorescence Imaging
This article gives an overview of two different types of superresolution techniques. Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is a versatile and fast method that is based on point scanning…Read article
Every Clue Counts – Forensics Inconceivable Without Microscopy
There is no crime without clues. They may be obvious, like a cartridge case at the scene of the crime or clear signs of crowbar damage on a door. But sometimes, clues are microscopically small.…Read article
Targeting of Peroxisomal Matrix Proteins in the Diatom Phaeodactylum Tricornutum
P. tricornutum cells expressing different types of GFP fusion proteins were harvested via centrifugation at 1,500xg and cryoimmobilized by high-pressure freezing on gold carriers.Read article
Unmask the Hidden without Probes: CARS
Fluorescence microscopy assumed a pivotal role in cell biology once it was possible to stain cell components selectively by fluorescing dyes. One of the first explorers of targeted stainings, Paul…Read article
Stereo microscopes with TripleBeam Technology
Especially in fluorescence microscopy, excitation light is friend and foe in one. On the one hand, energy-rich excitation via a specific light wavelength of the fluorochrome resulting in a bright…Read article
Image Cytometry
Microscopy-based imaging is booming and the need for tools to retrieve quantitative data from images is urgent. This book provides simple but reliable tools to generate valid quantitative gene…Read article
Imaging Enzymes at Work
For the understanding of functions of proteins in biological and pathological processes, reporter molecules such as fluorescent proteins have become indispensable tools for visualizing the location of…Read article
Videos on the Leica History (German only)
April 26th 2013 is the 170th anniversary of the birth of Ernst Leitz I (1843-1920), who turned a small optical workshop in Wetzlar into an optics company of world renown. At the beginning of the 20th…Read article
Immersion Freezing of Suspended Particles and Cells for Cryo-Electron Microscopy
Immersion freezing of thin aqueous specimens is an essential preparation technique for cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), aiming to preserve fragile biological structures such as…Read article
Automated Digital 3D Topography Measurement with the Leica DCM 3D Dual Core Measuring Microscope
The precise measurement of surface structures and topography is the key thing during the production, control and development in many sectors of industry or research. Because very often there is not…Read article
Step by Step Guide for FRAP Experiments
Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) has been considered the most widely applied method for observing translational diffusion processes of macromolecules. The resulting information can be…Read article
Pinhole Geometry: Four Corners are Perfect
Square and hexagonal pinholes provide identical image signal levels, if the geometries are compared in a sensible manner. The amount of light passing the pinhole depends on the area of that aperture,…Read article
Brief Introduction to High-Pressure Freezing
Water is the most abundant cellular constituent and therefore important for preserving cellular ultra-structure. Currently the only way to fix cellular constituents without introducing significant…Read article
Multiple Microscopy Modes in a Single Sweep with Supercontinuum White Light
Lasers have been critical to the advancement on confocal microscopy, and the white light laser (WLL) offers particular advantages. Finessing WLL output for bioimaging is a complex task, though, and…Read article
Organ Regeneration: An Unlikely Fish Tale
Spectacular discoveries in cardiac tissue regeneration are rapidly moving researchers closer to the goal of harnessing regenerative techniques to repair the human heart. Only eleven years ago, Dr.…Read article
Spectral Detection – How to Define the Spectral Bands that Collect Probe-specific Emission
To specifically collect emission from multiple probes, the light is first separated spatially and then passes through a device that defines a spectral band. Classically, this is a common glass-based…Read article
Ergonomically Designed Surgical Microscopes Support Performance
Operations not only demand maximum concentration of the surgeon but also maximum physical fitness. Physiotherapist John Ludescher explains how the body can be given optimal support to perform at its…Read articleSTED Nanoscopy with Time-Gated Detection: Theoretical and Experimental Aspects
In a stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope the region in which fluorescence markers can emit spontaneously shrinks with continued STED beam action after a singular excitation event. This…Read article
Abstracts of the 3rd European Super-Resolution User-Club Meeting
The 3rd meeting of the Leica Super-Resolution User Club was held from June 17th to 19th, 2013 in collaboration with Alberto Diaspro and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa. Confocal and…Read article
Carbon Thickness Evaluation in Electron Microscopy
The coating layers applied and used for electron microscopy imaging are commonly controlled and measured by quartz crystals. These crystals oscillate with a certain frequency (around 6 megahertz when…Read article
Direct In Vivo Evidence for Tumor Propagation by Glioblastoma Cancer Stem Cells
Cancer research using multiphoton microscopy. High-grade gliomas (World Health Organization grade III anaplastic astrocytoma and grade IV glioblastoma multiforme), the most prevalent primary…Read article
A Precise and Rapid Mapping Protocol for Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy of small invertebrate organisms
CLEM (correlative live cell and electronmicroscopy) seeks to bridge the data acquired with different imaging strategies, typically between light microscopy and electron microscopy. It has been…Read article
Safe High Pressure Freezing of Infectious Microorganisms
Especially in core EM-facilities one is confronted with material (microorganisms and cells) which are infectious. It is a must to follow the safety rules according to the National regulations. However…Read article
New Labeling Tools Can Help to Realize the Full Potential of Super-Resolution Microscopy
Since super-resolution microscopy techniques revolutionized the concept of light microscopy by overcoming the physical diffraction limit, STED microscopy and other super-resolution techniques have…Read article
Handbook of Optical Filters for Fluorescence Microscopy
Fluorescence microscopy and other light-based applications require optical filters that have demanding spectral and physical characteristics. Often, these characteristics are application-specific and…Read article
Watching Molecule Movements in Live Cells
The newly developed STED-RICS microscopy method records rapid movements of molecules in live samples. By combining raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS) with STED fluorescence microscopy,…Read articleSingle-Wavelength Two-Photon Excitation-stimulated Emission Depletion (SW2PE-STED) Superresolution Imaging
Two-photon microscopy, multiphoton microcopy and super-resolution imaging. We developed a new class of two-photon excitation–stimulated emission depletion (2PE-STED) optical microscope. In this…Read article
From Dynamic Live Cell Imaging to 3D Ultrastructure: Novel Integrated Methods for High Pressure Freezing and Correlative Light-Electron Microscopy
To correlate dynamic events in adherent cells with both ultrastructural and 3D information, we developed a method for cultured cells that combines confocal time-lapse images of GFP-tagged proteins…Read article
Brief Introduction to Coating Technology for Electron Microscopy
Coating of samples is required in the field of electron microscopy to enable or improve the imaging of samples. Creating a conductive layer of metal on the sample inhibits charging, reduces thermal…Read article
Towards Real-time Image Deconvolution: Application to Confocal and STED Microscopy
Although deconvolution can improve the quality of any type of microscope, the high computational time required has so far limited its massive spreading. Here we demonstrate the ability of the…Read article
Three-Dimensional Super-Resolution GSDIM Microscopy
With the new 3D GSDIM technique structures like the Golgi and the microtubular network are resolved not only laterally, but also in a third dimension. The principle is based on the use of optical…Read article
Investing in Ergonomically Designed Microscope Workplaces Pays Off
To do their best at work, people have to have a feeling of physical wellbeing: they are more attentive and motivated and more productive for longer periods of time. As ergonomically designed…Read article
Brief Introduction to Glass Knifemaking for Electron and Light Microscope Applications
Glass knives are used in an ultramicrotome to cut ultrathin slices of samples for electron and light microscope applications. For resin and for cryo sections (Tokuyasu samples) the knife edge must be…Read article
STED Microscopy: A New Chapter in Light Imaging
When Stefan Hell invented a technique that pushed beyond the diffraction limit of light for the first time, a new field of nanoscale imaging was born. Now laboratories around the world are using …Read article
Higher Motivation, Longer Concentration – Ergonomics as a Competitive Advantage
Sensor and identification technology, industrial cameras: when top precision is required, the name Baumer Electric is soon mentioned. The Swiss company designs and produces components for…Read article
Brief Introduction to Contrasting for EM Sample Preparation
Since the contrast in the electron microscope depends primarily on the differences in the electron density of the organic molecules in the cell, the efficiency of a stain is determined by the atomic…Read article
A Flip of the Mitotic Spindle has Disastrous Consequences for Epithelial Cells
Constructing a body is like building a house – if you compromise structural integrity, the edifice can collapse. Nowhere is that clearer on a cellular level than in the case of epithelial sheets,…Read article
Interview with Stefan Hell: Breaking Nanoscale Boundaries
Stefan Hell is credited with having conceived and applied the first viable concept for breaking Abbe’s diffraction limit in a light-focusing microscope. He is a scientific member of the Max Planck…Read article
Thermodynamic Considerations Regarding the LN2 in a High Pressure Freezer
Employing liquid nitrogen (LN2) as a coolant in the complex process of high pressure freezing raises certain considerations regarding phase transition not only of the liquid sample to be frozen but…Read article
Nobel Prize 2013 in Physiology or Medicine for Discoveries of the Machinery Regulating Vesicle Traffic
On October 7th 2013, The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof…Read article
Patch Clamp Recordings from Embryonic Zebrafish Mauthner Cells
Mauthner cells (M-cells) are large reticulospinal neurons located in the hindbrain of teleost fish. They are key neurons involved in a characteristic behavior known as the C-start or escape response…Read article
Rapid Immunohistochemical Diagnosis of Tobacco Mosaic Virus Disease by Microwave-assisted Plant Sample Preparation
Immunoelectron microscopy is a powerful method to diagnose viral diseases and to study the distribution of the viral agent within plant cells and tissues. Nevertheless, current protocols for the…Read article
Acousto Optics in True Confocal Spectral Microscope Systems
Acousto-optical elements have successfully replaced planar filters in many positions. The white confocal, regarded as the fully spectrally tunable confocal microscope, was not possible without this…Read article
Super-resolution Microscopy and the Third Dimension
Optical imaging devices have a finite depth of field and diffraction limited resolution. The depth of field problem was tackled first with confocal microscopes, diffraction unlimited resolution is…Read article
Ground Beetles Shed Light on the Environmental History of High Mountain Regions
With over 35,000 known species, ground beetles – or Carabidae – are among the most speciose groups of animals in the world. Biologist Dr. Joachim Schmidt devotes his entire scientific work to the…Read article
Euro-BioImaging – the pan-European Open Access Research Infrastructure Project for Biological and Medical Imaging Technologies
Euro‐BioImaging is a large‐scale pan‐European research infrastructure project on the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap. Its mission is to build a distributed imaging…Read article
Video: How to Achieve Fast Precise Cutting Lines in Laser Microdissection
This video explains the laser beam deflection principle of Leica Microsystems‘ laser microdissection systems (Leica LMD). The laser, the beam expander, motorized attenuator, motorized iris diaphragm…Read article
Live-Cell Imaging Evolves to Find New Niches
Since its introduction in the 1600s, improvements in microscope technology have continually broadened the types of cells and cellular processes that can be studied. Advances in automation have made…Read article
Laser Microdissection (LMD) and Fancy Applications
New and far-reaching applications have recently been opened up in the field of laser microdissection. In addition to conventional dissection, the laser microdissection system (LMD) of Leica…Read article
Super-Resolution Microscopy Gives New Insights into Nuclear Pore Complex Organization
The Nuclear Pore Complex (NPC) is a large complex in the nuclear membrane, representing the gate to the eukaryotic genetic makeup. Because of this outstanding function the structure of the NPC is of…Read article
The Relationship Between Membrane Potential and Calcium Dynamics in Glucose-Stimulated Beta Cell Syncytium in Acute Mouse Pancreas Tissue Slices
Oscillatory electrical activity is regarded as a hallmark of the pancreatic beta cell glucose-dependent excitability pattern. Electrophysiologically recorded membrane potential oscillations in beta…Read article
Pathology Overcomes Boundaries – Interactive Microscope System Facilitates Training of Pathologists in Developing Countries
"The lack of pathological examinations is one of the most pressing issues of medical care in developing countries." Dr. Roberto Monaco, pathologist in Neaples, knows the disastrous consequences from…Read article
Novel Fluorescent Carbonic Nanomaterials for Sensing and Imaging
Small brightly fluorescent carbon nanoparticles have emerged as a new class of materials important for sensing and imaging applications. We analyze comparatively the properties of nanodiamonds,…Read article
The Force of the Dark Side – Embedding Media for GSDIM Super-Resolution Localization Microscopy
Super-resolution microscopy such as Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) and single-molecule based techniques rely on the same principle for breaking the diffraction limit: the unwanted fluorescence…Read article
Production of RNA for Transcriptomic Analysis from Mouse Spinal Cord Motor Neuron Cell Bodies by Laser Capture Microdissection
High-quality total RNA has been prepared from cell bodies of mouse spinal cord motor neurons by laser capture microdissection after staining spinal cord sections with Azure B in 70% ethanol.…Read article
Brief Introduction to Freeze Substitution
Freeze-substitution is a process of dehydration, performed at temperatures low enough to avoid the formation of ice crystals and to circumvent the damaging effects observed after ambient-temperature…Read article
Evolutionary Morphology: Rostock Scientists Clarify Phylogenetic Relationships within the Most Diverse Taxon, Arthropoda
With over a million described species arthropods, which include spiders, millipedes, crustaceans and insects, are the most diverse taxon on earth. The total number of species of these segmented…Read article
Protein Trafficking in Cereal Seeds
Seeds accumulate proteins and starch which will be broken down and mobilized upon germination. Among seeds, cereals constitute an example of a highly specialized storage tissue that constitutes up to…Read article
Local and Global Methods of Assessing Thermal Nociception in Drosophila Larvae
In this article, we demonstrate assays to study thermal nociception in Drosophila larvae. One assay involves spatially-restricted (local) stimulation of thermal nociceptors while the second involves a…Read article
Cellular Organization of Cortical Barrel Columns is Whisker-specific
The cellular organization of the cortex is of fundamental importance for elucidating the structural principles that underlie its functions. It has been suggested that reconstructing the structure and…Read article
The Effects of Peri-implantitis Decontamination Treatments on the Surface Roughness and Chemistry of a Titanium Alloy Used for Dental Implants: Implications for Bone Reintegration
Titanium (Ti) alloys are biocompatible materials which are often used for human implants, especially in dentistry. For this study, different types of odontological (dental) treatments for…Read article
Clean Parts – More Reliable and Longer Lifetime
In the automotive industry, the technical cleanliness of function-critical individual and system components has become an increasingly critical criterion for reliability and service life. This trend…Read article
Optogenetic Toolkit Goes Multicolor
Optogenetics is a technique that allows scientists to control neurons’ electrical activity with light by engineering them to express light-sensitive proteins. Within the past decade, it has become a…Read article
Sorbin and SH3 Domain‐Containing Protein 2 Is Released from Infarcted Heart in the Very Early Phase: Proteomic Analysis of Cardiac Tissues From Patients
Many animal experiments have been performed to date to elucidate the mechanism of cardiac ischemic injury, and these studies have enhanced our understanding of cardiac remodeling following hypoxic…Read article
Functional Connectivity in Islets of Langerhans from Mouse Pancreas Tissue Slices
We propose a network representation of electrically coupled beta cells in islets of Langerhans. Beta cells are functionally connected on the basis of correlations between calcium dynamics of…Read article
Glucose-Stimulated Calcium Dynamics in Islets of Langerhans in Acute Mouse Pancreas Tissue Slices
In endocrine cells within islets of Langerhans calcium ions couple cell stimulation to hormone secretion. Since the advent of modern fluorimetry, numerous in vitro studies employing primarily isolated…Read article
Map the Brain with CLARITY
Imaging whole brains with CLARITY and multiphoton microscopy. Image a whole brain without sectioning? Investigate neuronal circuits without reconstruction? Perform molecular phenotyping without…Read article
Genomic Survey, Gene Expression Analysis and Structural Modeling Suggest Diverse Roles of DNA Methyltransferases in Legumes
DNA methylation plays a crucial role in development through inheritable gene silencing. Plants possess three types of DNA methyltransferases (MTases), namely Methyltransferase (MET), Chromomethylase…Read article
Myths Under the Microscope: The Restoration of Celtic Finds
The find of an almost life-sized sandstone statue of a Celtic "prince" in Glauberg in the German state of Hessen marked the beginning of an exciting journey to the early Celtic past of the 5th century…Read article
Freeze Substitution of Trypanosoma brucei
Chemical fixation of biological specimens for ultrastructural investigation is a relatively slow and selective process, and therefore a common source of artifacts. Freezing, on the other hand, is an…Read article
A New Filtering Technique for Removing Anti-Stokes Emission Background in Gated CW-STED Microscopy
Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is a prominent approach of super-resolution optical microscopy, which allows cellular imaging with so far unprecedented unlimited spatial resolution.…Read article
The Morbus Parkinson Puzzle
A characteristic sign of M. Parkinson is the deterioration of dopaminergic neurons in the mid-brain, specifically in the substantia nigra (SN, black substance). Different causes and forms of this…Read article
Visualization of the Immunological Synapse by Dual Color Time-gated Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Nanoscopy
Here we illustrate the protocol for imaging by two-color STED nanoscopy the cytotoxic immune synapse of NK cells recapitulated on glass. Using this method we obtain sub-100 nm resolution of synapse…Read article
Sample Preparation for GSDIM Localization Microscopy – Protocols and Tips
The widefield super-resolution technique GSDIM (Ground State Depletion followed by individual molecule return) is a localization microscopy technique that is capable of resolving details as small as…Read article
Tracking Glomerular Fate Over Long Time Distances
Multi-channel multiphoton microscopy with dedicated optics for CLARITY. The glomerular filtration barrier (GFB) is a complex spatial structure within the kidney glomerulis where ultrafiltration…Read article
Surface Roughness of Flowable Resin Composites eroded by Acidic and Alcoholic Drinks
Acidic beverages, such as soft drinks (orange juice, and cola), or ethanol (whisky), can produce erosion of resin composites. The surface degradation of resin materials is related to the content and…Read article
Focus on Microscopy 2014 – Abstracts of the Presentations Online Available
Focus on Microscopy 2014 was held at the University of Sydney, Australia from April 13–16. Over 600 delegates and exhibitors attend this year’s FOM meeting. The program with attached one-page…Read article
An Innovative Non-contact Method to Determine Surface Free Energy on Micro-areas
Surface free energy (SFE) is a property which depends on the chemical state and roughness of the surface and it is necessary to develop a reliable method to evaluate SFE value on a small area, taking…Read article
Imaging Pheromone Sensing in a Mouse Vomeronasal Acute Tissue Slice Preparation
In mice, the ability to detect pheromones is principally mediated by the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Here, an acute tissue slice preparation of VNO for performing calcium imaging is described. This…Read article
Colonization of Potato Rhizosphere by GFP-Tagged Bacillus subtilis MB73/2, Pseudomonas sp. P482 and Ochrobactrum sp. A44 Shown on Large Sections of Roots Using Enrichment Sample Preparation and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy
The ability to colonize the host plants’ rhizospheres is a crucial feature to studyin the case of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPRs) with potential agricultural applications. In this work,…Read article
Establishment and Characterization of an Omasal Epithelial Cell Model Derived from Dairy Calves for the Study of Small Peptide Absorption
The objective of this study was to establish a primary culture of omasal epithelial cells (OECs) derived from dairy calves and to characterize its function in small peptide absorption. Bovine omasal…Read article
Capturing Cellular Dynamics with Millisecond Temporal Resolution
The combination of two powerful techniques: optogenetics and high-pressure freezing now makes it possible to visualize a dynamic cellular activity with temporal resolution of 5 milliseconds. By…Read article
Bird Park Gives Fascinating Insights into the Variety of Nature
The Vogel- und Naturschutz-Tierpark Herborn to the north of Frankfurt may be small, but it’s always a great experience for school classes – and not only because it’s home to more than 300 animals of…Read article
Hunting Down the Hay Bacillus – Educational Microscopes in Biology Teaching
Learning begins with perception. Sensory impressions are branded in our mind and become the building blocks of knowledge. The more intensively young people are involved in the lesson and the more…Read article
Synaptic Vesicle Recycling: Steps and Principles
Synaptic vesicle recycling is one of the best‐studied cellular pathways. Many of the proteins involved are known, and their interactions are becoming increasingly clear. However, as for many other…Read article
Interview with Dr. Yasushi Okada
Yasushi Okada, team leader at Riken Quantitative Biology Center in Osaka, Japan, investigates vesicular transport mechanisms in neuronal cells. As the size of transported vesicles is below 100 nm and…Read article
Characterization of Thin Films Using High Definition Confocal Microscopy
Thin film characterization technologies are in high demand, given the wide-spread use of coatings in all engineering and science fields. The properties of thin films can vary dramatically, i.e.…Read article
Video Talk on Super-Resolution: Overview and Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Microscopy
Historically, light microscopy has been limited in its ability to resolve closely spaced objects, with the best microscopes only able to resolve objects separated by 200 nm or more. This limit is…Read article
Triple Ion Beam Cutting of Diamond/Al Composites for Interface Characterization
The microstructure of new materials with heterogenic components is extremely difficult to study. As mechanical polishing often not leads to smooth surfaces, a novel ion beam cutting technique has…Read article
Analysis of Oil Shale as an Alternative Source of Energy
For some years now, the search for alternative sources of raw materials has concentrated on oil shale deposits. As the exploitation of these raw materials is still extremely complex and expensive,…Read article
Preparation of Laser Microdissected Plant Cell and Tissue Material for Microchemical Analysis
Secondary plant metabolites are involved in various plant physiological and biochemical processes, allowing plants to interact successfully with their biotic and abiotic environment. Distribution…Read article
Partner Lab for EM Sample Preparation in Paris
At the Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie (IMPMC) of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris an new lab for EM Sample Preparation welcomes researchers of…Read article
Super-Resolution Microscopy Helped to Create the First 3D Model of a Synapse
A research team from Göttingen, led by Prof. Silvio O. Rizzoli, managed to determine the copy numbers and positions of all important building blocks of a synapse for the first time. This allowed them…Read article
Super-resolution Molecular and Functional Imaging of Nanoscale Architectures in Life and Materials Science
Super-resolution (SR) fluorescence microscopy has been revolutionizing the way in which we investigate the structures, dynamics, and functions of a wide range of nanoscale systems. In this review, I…Read article
Glucose-Regulated Protein 78 (Grp78) Confers Chemoresistance to Tumor Endothelial Cells under Acidic Stress
This study was designed to investigate the activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) in tumor associated endothelial cells (TECs) and its association with chemoresistance during acidic pH…Read article
Video: The Ascent – a Brief History of the Brain
This video features a few of the major scientists and findings that have contributed to modern neuroscience: The history of our knowledge of the brain, how technical and conceptual advances led to new…Read article
Smart Control for Resonant Galvo Scanners
High time-resolution confocal microscopy (HTRCLSM) requires fast scanning devices. Whereas non-resonant galvo scanners allow full position control, but only at slow speed, resonant scanners allow…Read article
The Environment Makes the Stem Cell
A recent publication in Nature shows that all stem cells divide and compete for niche space by passively "kicking out" others so that eventually one stem cell takes over the whole niche. Jacco van…Read article
Abstracts of the 4th European Super-Resolution User-Club Meeting
The 4th Super-Resolution User Club Meeting was held in collaboration with Christian Eggeling and the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, UK. Here we present the abstracts of the…Read article
125 Years of Comparison Microscopy – From the "camera lucida" to the Automated Comparison Bridge
To be able to optically compare two objects with scientific accuracy, it must be possible to view them at the same time. This is particularly true for comparing small objects that can only be…Read article
STED Microscopy of Living Cells – New Frontiers in Membrane and Neurobiology
Recent developments in fluorescence far-field microscopy such as STED microscopy have accomplished observation of the living cell with a spatial resolution far below the diffraction limit. Here, we…Read article
Video Talk by Jeff Lichtman: Resolution in Microscopy – Wave Optics and the Diffraction Limit
Light has properties of particles and waves. Understanding the wave nature of light is essential to understanding the workings of a microscope. This lecture describes Huygens Wavelets,…Read article
Single-Cell Phenotyping within Transparent Intact Tissue through Whole-Body Clearing
Understanding the structure-function relationships at cellular, circuit, and organ-wide scale requires 3D anatomical and phenotypical maps, currently unavailable for many organs across species. At the…Read article
Correlated Optical and Isotopic Nanoscopy
The isotopic composition of different materials can be imaged by secondary ion mass spectrometry. In biology, this method is mainly used to study cellular metabolism and turnover, by pulsing the cells…Read article
Spectral and Structural Comparison Between Bright and Dim Green Fluorescent Proteins in Amphioxus
The cephalochordate Amphioxus naturally co-expresses fluorescent proteins (FPs) with different brightness, which thus offers the rare opportunity to identify FP molecular feature/s that are associated…Read article
Video Interviews with Kees Jalink
Kees Jalink's group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, explores signal transduction pathways and cell adhesion processes in cancer cells. In his eyes especially the new…Read article
Glycerol Spraying/Platinum Low Angle Rotary Shadowing of DNA with the Leica EM ACE600 e-beam
Glycerol spraying/low angle rotary shadowing (Aebi and Baschong, 2006) is a preparation technique used in biology to visualize structures yielding insufficent contrast with other techniques, due to…Read article
Video Interview with Timo Zimmermann
The first super-resolution image he saw was an eye opener for him: "It was not just structures that got smaller. I was looking at a sample that I specifically had high hopes of seeing another layer of…Read article
Clearing Procedures for Deep Tissue Imaging
Multi-channel multiphoton microscopy with dedicated optics for CLARITY. Why clearing? Curiosity is human nature. And nothing attracts as much curiosity as the inside of living organisms. While in…Read article
Brief Introduction to Specimen Trimming
Before ultrathin sectioning a sample with an ultramicrotome it has to be pre-prepared. For this pre-preparation, special attention must be paid to the sample size (size of the section), location of…Read article
Video Interview with William Hughes
William Hughes works at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney (Australia). In his Lab Head position he is interested in the causes of diabetes particularly looking at changes in exocytic…Read article
Defect Transport Mechanism Leads to Shortened Chromosome Ends
Scientists at the University of Göttingen have deciphered the biogenesis of an enzyme complex whose role is to ensure that the ends of chromosomes are not shortened during the cell division process…Read article
Brief Introduction to Freeze Fracture and Etching
Freeze fracture describes the technique of breaking a frozen specimen to reveal internal structures. Freeze etching is the sublimation of surface ice under vacuum to reveal details of the fractured…Read article
7 Tips For Better Ergonomics in Neurosurgery
Pain and muscle tension are common phenomena in a neurosurgeon’s workday: 78% of neurosurgeons surveyed reported pain after a day of surgery, 83% of these had musculoskeletal pain. By its nature,…Read article
Video Interview with Stefan Hell, the Inventor of Super-Resolution
Professor Stefan Hell is director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and head of the department of NanoBiophotonics in Goettingen and widely considered as the father of…Read article
FusionOptics in Neurosurgery and Ophthalmology – for a Larger 3D Area in Focus
Neurosurgeons and ophthalmologists deal with delicate structures, deep or narow cavities and tiny structures with vitally important functions. A clear, three-dimensional view on the surgical field is…Read article
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Achievements in Super-Resolution Microscopy
On October 8th 2014, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2014 to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner "for the development of…Read article
3D STED (Stimulated Emission Depletion) Microscopy
The resolution needed to image subcellular architecture and dynamics in light microscopy is hindered by the diffraction limits as described by Ernst Abbe. Simply stated, structures smaller than 200…Read article
How to Clean a Coater
Coating of samples is required in the field of electron microscopy to enable or improve the imaging of samples. Compared to the traditional coater design, all parts of a Leica EM ACE Coater can be…Read article
A New Probe for Super-Resolution Imaging of Membranes Elucidates Trafficking Pathways
The molecular composition of the organelles involved in membrane recycling is difficult to establish as a result of the absence of suitable labeling tools. We introduce in this paper a novel probe,…Read article
Micropolarimetric Analysis of Guard Cell Walls in M. Koenigii versus De Novo Localized Starch Granules in Freshly-Isolated Potato Tuber
Polarized light microscopy (PLM) has often been utilized in the fields of geology and the material sciences with significant implications in determining the mineral compositions and structures of…Read article
Analysis of Autofluorescence in Polymorphonuclear Neutrophils: A New Tool for Early Infection Diagnosis
Diagnosing bacterial infection (BI) remains a challenge for the attending physician. An ex vivo infection model based on human fixed polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) gives an autofluorescence…Read article
Welcome to "Sandland" – How Microscopy Uncovers the Beauty of Sand
Jenny Natusch from Lancaster, UK, is an artist, a photographer, a microphotographer and most of all she is a "sandgazer". With her totally different way of looking at things, she creates wonderful…Read article
ICln: A New Regulator of Non-Erythroid 4.1R Localisation and Function
To optimise the efficiency of cell machinery, cells can use the same protein (often called a hub protein) to participate in different cell functions by simply changing its target molecules. There are…Read article
Deeper Insights in Transparent Animals
CLARITY clearing derivatives for multiphoton microscopy. Transparent organisms help us to identify spatial arrangements and connections of cells and tissues, especially neuronal circuits can easily…Read article
Electron Tomography of Cryo-Immobilized Plant Tissue: A Novel Approach to Studying 3D Macromolecular Architecture of Mature Plant Cell Walls In Situ
Cost-effective production of lignocellulosic biofuel requires efficient breakdown of cell walls present in plant biomass to retrieve the wall polysaccharides for fermentation. In-depth knowledge of…Read article
Video Talk by Karl Deisseroth: Optogenetics
Optogenetics is a combination of genetics and optics to achieve a gain or loss of function of biochemical events such as action potentials in a particular neuron or tissue. Opsin genes encode proteins…Read article
Nanoscale Protein Diffusion by STED-Based Pair Correlation Analysis
We describe for the first time the combination between cross-pair correlation function analysis (pair correlation analysis or pCF) and stimulated emission depletion (STED) to obtain diffusion maps at…Read article
Video Tutorials: Filling and Assembling of Different Carriers for High-Pressure Freezing
High pressure freezing (HPF) is a cryo-fixation method primarily for biological samples, but also for a variety of non-biological materials. It is a technique that yields optimal preservation in many…Read article
Cleanliness Analysis in Relation to Particulate Contamination
Devices, products, and their components fabricated in many industries can be quite sensitive to contamination and, as a result, have stringent requirements for cleanliness. Measurement systems for…Read article
Recovery of Recombinant Antibody is Affected by Endogenous Protein Interaction in Maize
Seeds provide a useful and versatile platform for the production of recombinant proteins and their numerous advantages have been often discussed. Among seeds, cereal crops offer additional advantages…Read article
Identification of Molecular Pathways Facilitating Glioma Cell Invasion In Situ
Gliomas are mostly incurable secondary to their diffuse infiltrative nature. Thus, specific therapeutic targeting of invasive glioma cells is an attractive concept. As cells exit the tumor mass and…Read article
Video Interview with Jean-Luc Vonesch
Jean-Luc Vonesch is head of the imaging facility at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC), Strasburg, France. 23 years ago he was the founder of this facility which…Read article
Axon Injury and Regeneration in the Adult Drosophila
Neural regeneration is a fascinating process with profound impact on human health, such that defining biological and genetic pathways is of interest. Here we describe an in vivo preparation for…Read article
Influencing Factors and Applicability of the Viability EMA-qPCR for a Detection and Quantification of Campylobacter Cells from Water Samples
In recent years, increasing numbers of human campylobacteriosis cases caused by contaminated water have been reported. As the culture-based detection of Campylobacter is time consuming and can yield…Read article
Video Talk by Jeff Lichtman: Point Spread Function
An infinitesimally small point appears in the microscope as a spot with a certain size, blurred in the z-direction and with concentric rings around it. This "point spread function" reveals many of the…Read article
"Leica is always flexible and dynamic" - Interview with Audrey Salles, Pasteur Institute, Paris
Audrey Salles is a specialist for confocal and super-resolution microscopy at Pasteur Institute, Imagopole, PFID, Paris, France. Her research interests are cytokine signaling and skeleton organization…Read article
Nature Methods: Light-sheet Fluorescence Microscopy - Method of the Year 2014
Just about everyone who has examined fluorescent samples under the microscope is aware of the constant struggle to have enough signal to see the labeled structures while also avoiding fluorophore…Read article
Multi-Images Deconvolution Improves Signal-to-Noise Ratio on Gated Stimulated Emission Depletion Microscopy
Time-gated detection, namely, only collecting the fluorescence photons after a time-delay from the excitation events, reduces complexity, cost, and illumination intensity of a stimulated emission…Read article
Influence of Tissue and Plant Species in the Trafficking of a Recombinant Protein in Plant Cells
The development of recombinant DNA technology has allowed the use of plants for the production of biopharmaceuticals. In contrast to other production platforms, plants are unexpensive, easy to scale…Read article
Immunotherapy to Combat Cancer: "Sleeping Beauty" – DNA Plasmid-based Gene Transfer System to Modify T Cells
Fighting cancer is a major goal of present-day medicine. So far mainly surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy are utilized to extinguish cancerous tissue, or at least set limits to it. …Read article
Video: Implant Microsurgery – Microscope-aided Maxillary Sinus Floor Elevation, Lateral Window Technique
The lateral window technique is a method of maxillary sinus floor elevation which enables implant placement in the maxillary posterior region where the maxillary sinus is enlarged and/or the alveolar…Read article
Immersion Freezing for Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy: Fundamentals
The high vacuum required in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) greatly impairs the ability to study specimens naturally occurring in an aqueous phase: exposing "wet" specimens to a pressure…Read article
Immersion Freezing for Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy: Applications
A well established usage case for cryo-TEM is three-dimensional reconstruction of isolated macromolecules, virus particles, or filaments. On one hand, these approaches are based on averaging of…Read article
Super-resolution Imaging of the Natural Killer Cell Immunological Synapse on a Glass-supported Planar Lipid Bilayer
The glass-supported planar lipid bilayer system has been utilized in a variety of disciplines. One of the most useful applications of this technique has been in the study of immunological synapse…Read article
GSDIM Publication List
GSDIM microscopy is a widefield super-resolution technique based on the localization of fluorophores with nanometer precision. With its help a lateral resolution of down to 20 nm can be achieved,…Read article
New Insights into Cilia and Flagella by Cryo-EM
Cilia and flagella were the first organelles to be discovered and have been studied for centuries. However, their essential role in humans and how ciliary defects cause diseases are still not well…Read article
Video: High Speed Scanning – With two Scanners in one System
High speed scanning is necessary to image rapidly changing biological processes. With traditional scanning techniques, imaging speed is limited by the number of fluorophores in a specimen. And, rapid…Read article
Nanoscale or Microscale Structures Formed in Polymers Containing Nanotubes Greatly Enhance the Electrical Conductivity
The excellent mechanical and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes have led to them being exploited for the creation of a new class of high performance polymer composites. Due to important…Read article
Universal PAINT – Dynamic Super-Resolution Microscopy
Super-resolution microscopy techniques have revolutionized biology for the last ten years. With their help cellular components can now be visualized at the size of a protein. Nevertheless, imaging…Read article
Towards Digital Photon Counting Cameras for Single-molecule Optical Nanoscopy
A SPAD array camera with single-photon sensitivity and zero read-out noise allows for the detection of extremely weak signals at ultra-fast imaging speeds. With temporal resolution in the order of…Read article
Customized Patterned Substrates for Highly Versatile Correlative Light-Scanning Electron Microscopy
Correlative light electron microscopy (CLEM) combines the advantages of light and electron microscopy, thus making it possible to follow dynamic events in living cells at nanometre resolution. Various…Read article
Video Talk by Daniel Axelrod: Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy
Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy is a technique that only illuminates dye molecules near a surface. In this video, the pioneer of TIRF Microscopy describes what this technique…Read article
Pathways to Optical STED Microscopy
STED nanoscopy has evolved to a highly versatile tool for the observation of the living cell, more and more finding its way into state-of-the-art optical imaging facilities in biomedical research…Read article
Five Advantages of Inverted Over Upright Microscopes in Industrial Applications
With inverted microscopes, you look at samples from below since their optics are placed under the sample, with upright microscopes you look at samples from above. Traditionally, inverted microscopes…Read article
Cryo CLEM – the Combination of Cryo Fluorescence Microscopy with Cryo Electron Microscopy
Many biological insights can be obtained by combining the power of Fluorescence Microscopy (FM) with that of Electron Microscopy (EM) to study the same sample – this is called Correlative Light and…Read article
Total RNA Isolation after Laser-capture Microdissection of Human Cervical Squamous Epithelial Cells from Fresh Frozen Tissue
As most tissue specimens contain a mixture of different cell types including epithelial cells, stromal cells and immune cells, selection of the cells of interest is of utmost importance for the…Read article
STED Nanoscopy: A Glimpse into the Future
The well-known saying of "Seeing is believing" became even more apt in biology when stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy was introduced in 1994 by the Nobel laureate S. Hell and coworkers.…Read article
Four questions for Professor Stefan Hell on the subject of FOM 2015
For Professor Stefan Hell, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2014 for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy and the development of STED microscopy, the Focus on Microscopy…Read article
Interview with Dr. Gertrude Bunt and Prof. Fred S. Wouters on the FOM 2015
Only a few days to go before the start of Focus on Microscopy 2015 in Göttingen, Germany. This year’s FOM is being organized by Dr. Gertrude Bunt and Prof. Dr. Fred S. Wouters from the University…Read article
Egg-in-Cube: Design and Fabrication of a Novel Artificial Eggshell with Functionalized Surface
The chick embryo and its circulatory system enclosed by the eggshell has become an important model for biomedical research such as the control of angiogenesis, cancer therapy, and drug delivery test.…Read article
Third Harmonic Generation Microscopy – Label-Free 3D-Tissue Imaging and Blood Flow Characterization
THG microscopy as special variants of multiphoton microscopy. Third Harmonic Generation (THG) microscopy is a non-fluorescent multi-photon technique that combines the advantages of label-free…Read article
How to Prepare Your Specimen for Immunofluorescence Microscopy
Immunofluorescence (IF) is a powerful method for visualizing intracellular processes, conditions and structures. IF preparations can be analyzed by various microscopy techniques (e.g. CLSM,…Read article
Encoding and Decoding Spatio-Temporal Information for Super-Resolution Microscopy
The challenge of increasing the spatial resolution of an optical microscope beyond the diffraction limit can be reduced to a spectroscopy task by proper manipulation of the molecular states. The…Read article
Venturing into Uncharted Dimensions – the Fascination of Future Technologies
Beyond the confines of the school curriculum, the young talent promotion program Initiative Junge Forscherinnen und Forscher e.V. (Initiative for Young Researchers) from Würzburg, Bavaria, has set…Read article
Correlating Intravital Multi-Photon Microscopy to 3D Electron Microscopy of Invading Tumor Cells Using Anatomical Reference Points
Cancer research unsing multiphoton microscopy and 3D electron microscopy. Correlative microscopy combines the advantages of both light and electron microscopy to enable imaging of rare and transient…Read article
Video: How Optical Innovations and 3D Heads-up Surgery Help to Improve Ophthalmic Surgery
In this video, Dr. Ike Ahmed demonstrates how optical innovations help to improve ophthalmic surgeries. In addition, he talks about his experience with 3D heads-up surgery, using a stereoscopic…Read article
Consumables for Laser Microdissection
There are many different types of consumables for laser microdissection (LMD) systems. They cover a wide range of applications from basic to highly specialized, enabling scientists to choose their own…Read article
Multilayered Polyelectrolyte Microcapsules: Interaction with the Enzyme Cytochrome C Oxidase
Cell-sized polyelectrolyte capsules functionalized with a redox-driven proton pump protein were assembled for the first time. The interaction of polyelectrolyte microcapsules, fabricated by…Read article
Confocal and Digital Light Sheet Imaging
Optical imaging instrumentation can magnify tiny objects, zoom in on distant stars and reveal details that are invisible to the naked eye. But it notoriously suffers from an annoying problem: the…Read article
Detailed Morphological Characterisation of Hendra Virus Infection of Different Cell Types Using Super-Resolution and Conventional Imaging
Hendra virus (HeV) is a pleomorphic virus belonging to the Paramyxovirus family. Our long-term aim is to understand the process of assembly of HeV virions. As a first step, we sought to determine the…Read article
Switching Roles: The Functional Plasticity of Adult Tissue Stem Cells
Adult organisms have to adapt to survive, and the same is true for their tissues. Rates and types of cell production must be rapidly and reversibly adjusted to meet tissue demands in response to both…Read article
What You Always Wanted to Know About Digital Microscopy, but Never Got Around to Asking
Digital microscopy is one of the buzz words in microscopy – and there are a couple of facts that are useful to know. Georg Schlaffer, Product Manager with Leica Microsystems, has often been asked…Read article
Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy – Get Your Free CLEM e-Book for Download
The urge to go deeper into the microscopic world has led researchers to combine the versatility of the light microscopy (LM) with the resolution power of the electron microscope (EM) to produce…Read article
Preparation of Small Disk-shaped Samples for Capacitance and Pyroelectric Current Measurements
Capacitance and pyroelectric current measurements are best suited to determine important dielectric properties of materials, e.g. the relative dielectric constant, εr, and the remnant electric…Read article
Correlative In-Resin Super-Resolution and Electron Microscopy Using Standard Fluorescent Proteins
We introduce a method for correlative in-resin super-resolution fluorescence and electron microscopy (EM) of biological structures in mammalian culture cells. Cryo-fixed resin embedded samples offer…Read article
High Quality Sample Preparation for EBSD Analysis by Broad Ion Beam Milling
Electron Backscatter Diffraction technique (EBSD) is known as a "surface" technique because electron diffraction is generated within a few tens of nanometers of the sample surface. Therefore, the…Read article
Intravenous Microinjections of Zebrafish Larvae to Study Acute Kidney Injury
We describe a technique of microinjecting the aminoglycoside, gentamicin, into 2 days post-fetilization (dpf) zebrafish larvae to induce acute kidney injury (AKI). We also describe a method for whole…Read article
iMSRC: Converting a Standard Automated Microscope into an Intelligent Screening Platform
Microscopy in the context of biomedical research is demanding new tools to automatically detect and capture objects of interest. The few extant packages addressing this need, however, have enjoyed…Read article
Abstracts of the 5th European Super-Resolution User-Club Meeting
The 5th Super-Resolution User Club Meeting was held in collaboration with Professor Kees Jalink and The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam. Having the meeting at a location where…Read article
Using Telecentric Optical Systems to Optimize Industrial Image Accuracy and Reproducibility
When the first multi-lens microscopes were invented in 1590, scientists marveled at their new ability to SEE small objects and features in the natural world that were previously invisible to the eye…Read article
Transnational Telepathology Consultations Using a Basic Digital Microscope: Experience in the Italy-Slovenjia INTERREG Project "Patient Without Borders"
In recent years, a number of technological advancements started to modify the long standing appearance and functionalities of traditional optical microscopes used in Pathology and other medical…Read article
Transmission Electron Microscopy Sample Preparation Protocols for the Ultrastructural Study of Cysts of Free-living Protozoa
Cysts of free-living protozoa have an impact on the ecology and epidemiology of bacteria because they may act as a transmission vector or shelter the bacteria against hash environmental conditions.…Read article
Critical-point Drying for the Preparation of Biological Samples for MicroCT Analysis
X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is a routinely applied non-invasive technique for the investigation of the internal anatomy and morphology of organisms. As a result of a micro-CT scan a…Read article
Multi-protein Assemblies Underlie the Mesoscale Organization of the Plasma Membrane
Most proteins have uneven distributions in the plasma membrane. Broadly speaking, this may be caused by mechanisms specific to each protein, or may be a consequence of a general pattern that affects…Read article
Workflows & Protocols: How to Use a Leica Laser Microdissection System and Qiagen Kits for Successful RNA Analysis
Laser Microdissection (LMD) allows isolating individual cells or chromosomes and is a well established technique for sample preparation prior downstream analysis of the nucleic acid content via PCR or…Read article
A Lipid Bound Actin Meshwork Organizes Liquid Phase Separation in Model Membranes
The eukaryotic cell membrane is connected to a dense actin rich cortex. We present FCS and STED experiments showing that dense membrane bound actin networks have severe influence on lipid phase…Read article
Cortical Actin Networks Induce Spatio-temporal Confinement of Phospholipids in the Plasma Membrane – A Minimally Invasive Investigation by STED-FCS
Important discoveries in the last decades have changed our view of the plasma membrane organisation. Specifically, the cortical cytoskeleton has emerged as a key modulator of the lateral diffusion of…Read article
First Bilateral Hand Transplant in a Child
Surgeons at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) joined with colleagues from Penn Medicine recently to complete the world’s first bilateral hand transplant on a child. Earlier this month,…Read article
A Straightforward Approach for Gated STED-FCS to Investigate Lipid Membrane Dynamics
Recent years have seen the development of multiple technologies to investigate, with great spatial and temporal resolution, the dynamics of lipids in cellular and model membranes. One of these…Read article
Microscopes Put to the Test with Severe Conditions: ISO Standard for Resistance of Optical Instruments to Fungus and Mold Growth
Microscopes and other optical instruments can be affected during use by environmental factors. The environment depends on the geographic location and conditions of the place where the instrument is…Read article
A Good Place for Materials Scientists and Mineralogists to prepare their EM Samples
In June 2014, the Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie (IMPMC) of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris became a Leica reference lab for EM Sample Preparation…Read article
Video Talk by Joseph Gall: Early History of Microscopy
Joseph Gall takes us through the history of early microscopes and the discovery of the cell. Compound microscopes were invented alongside the telescope in the 17th century; however these microscopes…Read article
STED Nanoscopy with Fluorescent Quantum Dots
The widely popular class of quantum-dot molecular labels could so far not be utilized as standard fluorescent probes in STED (stimulated emission depletion) nanoscopy. This is because broad…Read article
"We can go home and the imaging is done automatically by the Leica HCS A Matrix Screener."
Jutta Maria Bulkescher is the technical coordinator in the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research and Danish Stem Cell Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Leica HCS-A matrix screener is an…Read article
Gated STED Microscopy with Time-gated Single-photon Avalanche Diode
The maximization of the useful (within the time gate) photon flux is then an important aspect to obtain super-resolved STED images. Here we show that by using a fast-gated single-photon avalanche…Read article
Video: The White Light Laser – How to Effectively Excite Multiple Fluorophores with a Single Light Source
The Leica White Light Laser produces a continuous spectral output between the wavelengths of 470 and 670 nm. It allows you to select 8 excitation lines from 3 trillion unique combinations for…Read article
From Light to Mind: Sensors and Measuring Techniques in Confocal Microscopy
This article outlines the most important sensors used in confocal microscopy. By confocal microscopy, we mean "True Confocal Scanning", i.e. the technique that illuminates and measures one single…Read article
Localization of HDAC1 Using Super-Resolution STED Microscopy
Here we show staining of HDAC1 in cancer tissue and epidermoid carcinoma cells. These results clearly show that the use of appropriate validated antibodies and STED microscopy are important tools to…Read article
Progressive Glucose Stimulation of Islet Beta Cells Reveals a Transition From Segregated to Integrated Modular Functional Connectivity Patterns
Collective beta cell activity in islets of Langerhans is critical for the supply of insulin within an organism. In order to get a detailed insight into the functional organization of the syncytium, we…Read article
A Brief History of Light Microscopy – From the Medieval Reading Stone to Super-Resolution
The history of microscopy begins in the Middle Ages. As far back as the 11th century, plano-convex lenses made of polished beryl were used in the Arab world as reading stones to magnify manuscripts.…Read article
Co-Orientation: Quantifying Simultaneous Co-Localization and Orientational Alignment of Filaments in Light Microscopy
Co-localization analysis is a widely used tool to seek evidence for functional interactions between molecules in different color channels in microscopic images. Here we extend the basic…Read article
Fluorescent Proteins Illuminate Cell Biology
Green fluorescent protein (GFP) isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria and GFP-like fluorescent proteins from other animals have had an important role in the technical innovations that have…Read article
Probes that FIT RNA
We have been developing new tools based on fluorogenic forced intercalation (FIT) probes for RNA detection quantification and interference in biological samples. Upon duplex formation with target…Read article
Novel Microscopy-Based Screening Method Reveals Regulators of Contact-Dependent Intercellular Transfer
Contact-dependent intercellular transfer (codeIT) of cellular constituents can have functional consequences for recipient cells, such as enhanced survival and drug resistance. Here, we present a novel…Read article
"The Leica Digital Light Sheet Module – a Clever Example of Thinking Out of the Box"
Bram van den Broek is a postdoctoral fellow at the Netherlands cancer institute in Amsterdam where he supports the advanced microscopy techniques in the laboratory of Kees Jalink. Working with Leica…Read article
Light Sheet Microscopy Turned Vertically
Living cells and organisms often suffer from the high light intensities used for fluorescent imaging. Light sheet microscopy reduces phototoxic effects and bleaching by illuminating a specimen in only…Read article
Video Talk by Roger Tsien: Fluorescent Proteins
Live cell imaging has been revolutionized by the discovery of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). This lecture covers the history of GFP, how it folds and becomes fluorescent, how it has been mutated…Read article
New Predatory Cockroaches (Insecta: Blattaria: Manipulatoridae fam.n.) from the Upper Cretaceous Myanmar Amber
We describe a new extinct lineage Manipulatoridae (new family) of cockroaches from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) amber of Myanmar. Manipulator modificaputis gen. et sp. n. is a morphologically…Read article
Illumination (Lighting) Systems for Stereo Microscopes
This report gives users of stereo microscopes helpful advice when attempting to select optimal illumination or lighting systems for sample observation. The illumination used for microscopic…Read article
What do you Call a Drosophila who Likes to Drink? A Bar Fly!
The thought of a Drosophoila headed to the local bar for a drink creates a funny joke, but after long hours of sorting flies under a microscope that causes eyestrain or neck pain, you may be the one…Read article
Electron Microscopy Sample Preparation: “The Future is Cold, Dynamic and Hybrid”
In 2014, the renowned Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT) research lab at the University Antwerp, Belgium, and Leica Microsystems started a fruitful collaboration to establish a Leica…Read article
Video: Traumatic Soft and Hard Tissue Wound on the Maxillary Anterior with Microscope Assisted Rehabilitation
The concept of minimal intervention dentistry became a primary approach to treat carious lesions. These days, this concept could be adapted to manage soft tissue around the teeth and implants as a…Read article
Video Talk by Sonia H. Yoo: Interoperative OCT Imaging of Selective Lamellar Keratoplasty
The work prepared and presented within this video demonstrates preliminary research, and the promising future of perioperative OCT to aid the diagnosis of physiological and pathological conditions…Read article
Intraoperative OCT Today and Tomorrow: The PIONEER Study Two-year Results and Beyond
The high-resolution, cross sectional information provided by iOCT creates a unique feedback system for vitreoretinal surgery. The PIONEER Study conducted by the Cole Eye Institute is a three-year…Read article
OCT Publication List
OCT is a non-invasive, contact-free technique that helps to detect and monitor morphological changes of ocular tissue, in particular retinal layer thickness, which can give insight into pathological…Read article
High Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography Guided Donor Tissue Preparation for Descemet's Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty Using Reverse Big Bubble Technique
This study assessed the feasibility of High Resolution Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (HR-SDOCT) to guide donor tissue preparation in Descemet's Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK)…Read article
Handheld Optical Coherence Tomography During Sedation in Young Children With Optic Pathway Gliomas
Monitoring young children with optic pathway gliomas (OPGs) for visual deterioration can be difficult owing to age-related noncompliance. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) measures of retinal nerve…Read article
The Value of Intraoperative OCT Imaging in Vitreoretinal Surgery
The role of iOCT in vitreoretinal surgery continues to be defined by active research and enhancements to integrative technologies. Further research is needed to better define the specific applications…Read article
Cross-strand Binding of TFAM to a Single mtDNA Molecule Forms the Mitochondrial Nucleoid
Scientists from three Max Planck Institutes have gained fundamental insights into the organization of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The researchers observed in high-resolution images gained with nobel…Read article
Color Infidelity: Why Using a Light Source Incorrectly is Cheating on your Data
There are many influences on color in the imaging process including lighting, optics, sensor, and monitor, and ultimately print. The first, and generally most important, is lighting. There are plenty…Read article
Workflows & Protocols: How to Isolate Individual Chromosomes with Laser Microdissection
During the first Leica Workshop in Brazil, at the Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura/USP (CENA), the participants learned how to prepare samples for laser microdissection (LMD) using a cryotome.…Read article
Workflows & Protocols: Connecting Microscopy and Molecular Biology in Neuroscience
The main topic during this course was how to apply laser microdissection in neuroscience. Leica specialists demonstrated why laser microdissection is a suitable techniques for brain investigation as…Read article
Lytic Immune Synapse Function Requires Filamentous Actin Deconstruction by Coronin 1A
Natural killer (NK) cells are cytolytic effector cells of the innate immune system. Here, we show that deconstruction of synaptic cortical filamentous (F)-actin by Coronin 1A (Coro1A) is required for…Read article
Super-Resolution Microscopy of the Synaptic Active Zone
At the presynaptic active zone (AZ) a variety of specialized proteins are assembled to complex architectures, which set the basis for speed, precision and plasticity of synaptic transmission.…Read article
TEM Sample Preparation Made Easy - Prepare TEM Specimen by Broad Beam Argon Ion Milling
Quantitative and analytical analysis at high spatial resolution places stringent demands on the quality of the produced TEM specimens. Pristine and high-quality samples are indispensible for atomic…Read articleHigh Pressure Freezing with Light Stimulation
Sun screen lotion was carefully filled in the 100 μm incision of a 3 mm copper/gold plated flat carrier and covered with 3 mm sapphire disk. The sun screen lotion sample was then high pressure frozen…Read article
Video: Fluorescence is a State of Mind
How to break a fundamental law of physics and win a Nobel Prize to boot. Stefan Hell explains super-resolved fluorescence microscopy for which he shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry.Read article
Inspecting and Analyzing Printed Circuit Boards Quickly and Reliably with a Digital Microscope
For the past several years, digital microscopy has been shown to be useful for inspection, quality control and assurance (QC/QA), and failure analysis (FA) in the microelectronics industry, especially…Read article
A Healthy Dose of Interferometry
Although interferometry may once have been dismissed by the medical community because of its inability to see inside the human body, its application within the wider biomedical arena is continuing to…Read article
FRAP with TCS SP8 Resonant Scanner
Fast FRAP experiments need a sufficient number of measurement points for meaningful interpretation and fitting analysis. To study very fast translocational processes, the use of a resonant scanner…Read article
How to Combine STED and CLARITY
Previously, the preferred way to study the subtlest elements of the kidney, such as foot processes and the slit diaphragm has been by the use of electron microscopy. Using STED microscopy, we show…Read article
Introduction to Digital Camera Technology
A significant majority of modern optical microscopy techniques require the use of a digital camera. By working with digital devices researchers can observe specimens on a screen in real time or…Read article
Infection of Zebrafish Embryos with Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens
Transparent zebrafish embryos have proved useful model hosts to visualize and functionally study interactions between innate immune cells and intracellular bacterial pathogens, such as Salmonella…Read article
Cryo-electron Microscopy of Tubular Arrays of HIV-1 Gag Resolves Structures Essential for Immature Virus Assembly
HIV-1 undergoes a two-step assembly process. First, an immature noninfectious particle is assembled, which leaves the infected cell. Second, the structural protein, Gag, is cleaved in the virus by the…Read article
Cataract Surgery with CoAx4 Illumination
A stable red reflex is one of the most important features of an ophthalmic surgical microscope for cataract surgery. It’s the red reflex that makes the structure of the lens visible and thus makes for…Read article
The Impact of a Stable Red Reflex and Enhanced Focus in Cataract Surgery
In cataract surgery, ophthalmologists rely on the red reflex which provides ideal contrast to visualize the capsule, lens and anterior chamber structure. A new illumination technology in the latest of…Read article
Image gallery: Life Science Imaging with the Leica DVM6 Digital Microscope
Digital microscopes can be a great help in life science applications such as the documentation in botany, entomology studies and crop science, or the digitization of museum collections. The image…Read article
MyScope for Global Research Training
MyScope is an online educational site that provides modules on scanning and transmission electron microscopy, scanning probe and atomic force microscopy, confocal microscopy, X-ray diffraction and…Read article
4Pi-RESOLFT Nanoscopy
Here we apply the 4Pi scheme to RESOLFT nanoscopy using two-photon absorption for the on-switching of fluorescent proteins. We show that in this combination, the lobes are so low that low-light level,…Read article
Imaging of Host Cell-bacteria Interactions using Correlative Microscopy under Cryo-conditions
Pathogenic bacteria have developed intriguing strategies to establish and promote infections in their respective hosts. Most bacterial pathogens initiate infectious diseases by adhering to host cells…Read article
Triple-beam Ar-Ion-Milling with a Rotary Stage to Decorate Grain Boundaries and Substructures in Rock Salt
Decoration of grain boundaries in polycrystalline rocks has a long tradition in Structural Geology as in a monomineralic rock the recrystallized grain size is a good indicator for the paleostress…Read article
3D Visualization in ENT Surgery
3D visualization of microscopic images not only offers advantages for neurosurgery and ophthalmology, but also provides important benefits for ENT surgery and training. In this interview, Prof. Erwin…Read article
Infinity Optical Systems
“Infinity Optics” refers to the concept of a beam path with parallel rays between the objective and the tube lens of a microscope. Flat optical components can be brought into this “Infinity Space”…Read article
Digital Microscopy in Forensics – Examples From Ballistics, Document, and Trace Evidence Investigations
Forensic experts work with a broad range of microscopes to examine evidence from firearms and tool marks, documents, forensic or legal medicine, hair and fibers as well as glass and paint. Digital…Read articleHow to do a Proper Cell Culture Quick Check
In order to successfully work with mammalian cell lines, they must be grown under controlled conditions and require their own specific growth medium. In addition, to guarantee consistency their growth…Read article
How a State-of-the-Art Microscope Helps to Optimize the Workflow in Cataract Surgery
Typical ophthalmic procedures require specific levels of light, focus and magnification in each phase of surgery. Changing quickly between these settings is the prerequisite for an uninterrupted and…Read article
What Makes sCMOS Microscope Cameras so Popular?
sCMOS cameras are more sensitive and are capable of much higher acquisition speed than cameras with other sensor types. Even though CCD cameras are widely used in live cell imaging and time-lapse…Read article
Improvement of Metallic Thin Films for HR-SEM by Using DC Magnetron Sputter Coater
Preparation techniques, like several kinds of coating methods play an important role for high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM). Nonconductive sample like biological and synthetic…Read article
Definitions of Basic Technical Terms for Digital Microscope Cameras and Image Analysis
Most microscopes today are operated with a camera. The characteristics of the camera often decide whether the acquired image will reveal what a researcher wants to see. But when diving into camera…Read article
Six Features to Consider when Choosing a Dental Microscope
In dental medicine, the surgical microscope has become increasingly important for high-quality and successful surgeries, particularly in the field of endodontics. A microscope supports the dentist to…Read article
Super-Resolution Mapping of Neuronal Circuitry With an Index-Optimized Clearing Agent
Super-resolution imaging deep inside tissues has been challenging, as it is extremely sensitive to light scattering and spherical aberrations. Here, we report an optimized optical clearing agent for…Read article
Get the Most out of Digital Microscopy
From routine quality assurance to advanced 3D analysis of complex surface structures, there is a digital microscope solution to meet almost any requestRead article
Workflows & Protocols: Laser Microdissection for Pathology and Cancer Research
Tumor development results from mutations in our DNA. For their deeper analysis, cancer researchers have to dissect the relevant tissue areas. Here we report the reason why laser microdissection is a…Read article
Quantifying the Resolution of a Leica SR GSD 3D Localization Microscopy System with 2D and 3D Nanorulers
DNA origami based nanorulers produced by GATTAquant are common standards to test the achievable spatial resolution of super-resolution microscopes. Recently the nanorulers were used to test the…Read article
The Bimodally Expressed MicroRNA miR‐142 Gates Exit from Pluripotency
A stem cell's decision to self‐renew or differentiate is thought to critically depend on signaling cues provided by its environment. It is unclear whether stem cells have the intrinsic capacity to…Read article
Digital Microscopy Used in Microelectronics and Electronics Quality Control
Quality Control in the electronics and microelectronics industry is confronted with many challenges: A variety of different materials in a sample, some of them metallic and reflective, some matt; a…Read article
Cross Sectioning of Basalt Fibres
Application Note for Leica EM TIC 3X - Material Research. Purpose: The fibres are embedded in a soft matrix. That makes it difficult to prepare a cross section. Goal: Cross section of the basalt…Read article
Human Blood Cells Protocol
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Life Science Research. Species: Human (Homo sapiens) Critical point drying of human blood with subsequent platinum / palladium coating and SEM analysis.Read article
Inspection of Multilayer Coating in the Automotive Industry
Today’s automotive industry use a variety of decorative and functional treatment to improve the vehicles surfaces. Traditional quality control methods to inspect these multilayer samples have proven…Read article
ERK2 and Akt are Negative Regulators of Insulin and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Stimulated VCAM-1 Expression in Rat Aorta Endothelial Cells
Diabetes is quickly becoming the most widespread disorder in the Western world. Among the most prevalent effects of diabetes is atherosclerosis, which in turn is driven in part by inflammation. Both…Read article
Is iOCT the Next Paradigm Shift for Vitreoretinal Surgery?
Intraoperative ocular coherence tomography (iOCT) is a useful asset when performing macular surgery and other vitreoretinal procedures. Considering the advantages it provides, iOCT may be the next…Read article
Workflows & Protocols: Plant Laser Microdissection
During Leica workshops for LMD users in Brazil, hosted by the Federal University of Paraná/UFPR (UFPR) at the Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura/USP (CENA), the power of laser microdissection…Read article
Water Flea Protocol
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of water flea with subsequent gold coating and SEM-Analysis to detect finde surface structures.Read article
Cataract and Glaucoma Surgery with the Proveo 8 Ophthalmic Microscope
These videos recorded during cataract and glaucoma surgery using Proveo 8 demonstrate how Dr. Ahmed benefits from continuous red reflex even during phaco, due to exclusive CoAx 4 coaxial illumination,…Read article
The Dental Microscope in Endodontics
In dentistry a bright, magnified view into deep cavities supports detailed diagnosis and precise therapy, particularly in the field of endodontics. In this interview Dr. Dean Raicov explains the…Read article
TFG Promotes Organization of Transitional ER and Efficient Collagen Secretion
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the animal kingdom. It is of fundamental importance during development for cell differentiation and tissue morphogenesis as well as in pathological processes…Read article
Cross Sectioning of Rubber (Tire)
Application Note for Leica EM TIC 3X - Ion beam slope cutting is a method that can achieve cross sections of soft materials or material combinations consisting of hard and soft components.Read articleCryo-SEM Imaging of Latex Paint
Application Note for Leica EM VCT100, Leica EM ACE600 - A thin layer of latex paint was spread on a clean, scored, silicon chip. The sample was immediately plunge frozen in liquid ethane and…Read article
The Oncogenic Triangle of HMGA2, LIN28B and IGF2BP1 Antagonizes Tumor-Suppressive Actions of the let-7 Family
The tumor-suppressive let-7 microRNA family targets various oncogene-encoding mRNAs. We identify the let-7 targets HMGA2, LIN28B and IGF2BP1 to form a let-7 antagonizing self-promoting oncogenic…Read article
Two-Photon Excitation STED Microscopy with Time-Gated Detection
We report on a novel two-photon excitation stimulated emission depletion (2PE-STED) microscope based on time-gated detection. The time-gated detection allows for the effective silencing of the…Read article
How to Manage Critical Points in Cataract or Refractive Surgery with IOL Positioning Software
Successful refractive surgery is all about accuracy. The aim is to deliver minimal residual astigmatism so the patient can be glasses- free. Latest IOL Positioning Systems such as IOLcompass Pro…Read article
"The excellent red reflex, combined with the IOL guidance system, makes it possible for me to work quickly and precisely during refractive procedures."
Excellent red reflex as well as maximum accuracy throughout the entire procedure are required to meet these expectations. Dr. Ulrich Jung, Medical Director at the ARTEMIS eye clinic in Dillenburg,…Read article
Individual Macromolecule Motion in a Crowded Living Cell
There is solid evidence for analyzing fluorescence correlation and dual color fluorescence crosscorrelation spectroscopy data ( FCS and dual color FCCS) in cellular applications by equations based on…Read article
Cross Sectioning of Oil Shale Rock
Application Note for Leica TIC 3X - High quality sample preparation of large area to investigate the sample in the SEM. For the mechanical preparation step diamond lapping foils of 9μm subsequently…Read article
Label-free in vivo Imaging of Myelinated Axons in Health and Disease with Spectral Confocal Reflectance Microscopy
We report a new technique for high-resolution in vivo imaging of myelinated axons in the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerve that requires no fluorescent labeling. This method, based on spectral…Read article
Electron Microscopy of High Pressure Frozen and Freeze Substituted Arabidopsis Thaliana Root Tips Cells
Application Note for Leica EM AFS2 - Arabidopsis thaliana roots (mutant PIN1pro:PIN1-GFP;bex5-1) were excised, immersed in 20% (w/v) BSA and frozen immediately in a high-pressure freezer. Freeze…Read article
Symmetric Synapse - Clathrin Coated Endocytosis Pit in the Postsynaptic Dendrite
Application Note for Leica EM ICE - WT hippocampal neurons were plated at a density of 80,000 cells/cm2 on 6 mm sapphire disks for 14 days. Sample were frozen using a high-pressure freezer (Leica EM…Read article
Translation Microscopy (TRAM) for Super-Resolution Imaging
Super-resolution microscopy is transforming our understanding of biology but accessibility is limited by its technical complexity, high costs and the requirement for bespoke sample preparation. We…Read article
Cell Envelope Structure of a Gram-negative Thermotolerant y-Proteobacterium Acidithiobacillus sp., Strain HV2/2 and its Interaction with Pyrite
Application Note for Leica EM AFS2 - Cells of the the moderately thermophilic Acidithiobacillus sp.strain HV2/2, were centrifuged at 20,0009xg and then cryo-immobilized by high-pressure freezing on…Read article
Immuno - Electron Microscopy of High Pressure Frozen and Freeze Substituted Mouse Heart
Application Note for Leica EM AFS2 - Mouse heart tissue from wild-type (WT) and αT -catenin KO (KO) mice was excised, immersed in 20% (w/v) BSA and frozen immediately in a high-pressure freezer Leica…Read article
Highly Selective Fluorescent and Colorimetric Probe for Live-cell Monitoring of Sulphide Based on Bioorthogonal Reaction
H2S is the third endogenously generated gaseous signaling compound and has also been known to involve a variety of physiological processes. To better understand its physiological and pathological…Read article
Cross Sectioning of CuSn Connector of a Solar Cell
Application Note for Leica EM TIC 3X - Ion beam slope cutting is a method that can achieve flat cross sections of soft materials or material combinations consisting of hard and soft components. The…Read article
Arabidopsis thaliana(L.) Accession Col
Application Note for Leica EM AMW - Plants were grown in growth chambers under defined conditions. After stratification for 4 days at 4°C seeds were grown in pots with soil with 9/15 hours day/night…Read article
Contributions of Microbiome and Mechanical Deformation to Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth and Inflammation in a Human Gut-on-a-Chip
A human gut-on-a-chip microdevice was used to coculture multiple commensal microbes in contact with living human intestinal epithelial cells for more than a week in vitro and to analyze how gut…Read article
Cross Sectioning of Alumina
Application Note for Leica EM TIC 3X - Alumina is very difficult to handle and almost impossible to prepare with conventional methods. Ion beam slope cutting is a method that can achieve cross…Read article
Black Mould Protocol
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of Black mould (Aspergilus niger) with subsequent platinum / palladium coating and SEM analysis to detect conidiospores. Sample was…Read article
The Actin Cytoskeleton Modulates the Activation of iNKT Cells by Segregating CD1d Nanoclusters on Antigen-Presenting Cells
The ability of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells to recognize endogenous antigens represents a distinct immune recognition strategy, which underscores the constitutive memory phenotype of iNKT…Read article
Wrinkled Giant Hyssop Leaf Protocol
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of wrinkled giant hyssop leaf with subsequent gold coating and SEM analysis.Read article
Cryo-Electron Microscopy of Vitreous Sections (CEMOVIS) of Yeast
Application Note for Leica EM HPM100 - The sections are of yeast frozen with a Leica HPM100 high pressure freezer in the copper tube system, the cell paste was mixed with a pH 6.5 MES/dextran buffer…Read article
Ceramics - Sample Preparation for TEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - Ceramic samples are mostly very brittle, and are therefore very difficult to thin mechanically to a low starting thickness for ion beam milling. The ion beam…Read article
Video Talk by Roger Tsien: Fluorescent Protein Indicators
In this talk, Roger Tsien discusses how fluorescent proteins have been turned into indicators for a wide variety of biological molecules, including pH, ions, redox potential, and signaling molecules…Read article
Mirror-Enhanced Super-Resolution Microscopy
Axial excitation confinement beyond the diffraction limit is crucial to the development of next-generation, super-resolution microscopy. STimulated Emission Depletion (STED) nanoscopy offers lateral…Read article
Epoxy Resin Embedding of Animal and Human Tissues for Pathological Diagnosis and Research
Application Note for Leica EM AMW - The tissues were fixed in the modified Karnovsky fixative generally by immersion overnight (at minimum 4h at room temperature). Then pieces of approx. 1mm3 were cut…Read article
Image Gallery: Application Options with Leica DM2500 LED Microscope
The number of applications in microscopy can be as manifold as life itself. Different specimens demand different contrast methods to get a decent result. Unstained cells normally do not show a very…Read article
Cultured Rat Hippocampal Neurons
Application Note for Leica EM ICE - Rat Hippocampal neurons, cultured on 50 μm thick Aclar (Aclar embedding film, EMS) for 19 days, were frozen in the 100 μm deep side of lecithin coated (detailed…Read article
Micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) of Book Scorpion Musculature
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of book scorpion with subsequent X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to detect anatomical features with special regard to the…Read article
Cleaning of Smeared Sample Surfaces - Sample Preparation for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - Mechanical polishing of soft materials or hard / soft material combinations is tricky. The mechanical polishing process leads very often to smearing of the soft…Read article
Adeno-associated Viral Vectors do not Efficiently Target Muscle Satellite Cells
Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors are becoming an important tool for gene therapy of numerous genetic and other disorders. Several recombinant AAV vectors (rAAV) have the ability to transduce…Read article
Ion Beam Polishing of Sample Surfaces - Sample Preparation for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - Ion milling can be used to reduce the roughness of sample surfaces. Small angles less than 6° with respect to the sample surface are necessary. The high voltage…Read article
The Apical Ectodermal Ridge of the Mouse Model of Ectrodactyly Dlx5;Dlx6−/− Shows Altered Stratification and Cell Polarity, which are Restored by Exogenous Wnt5a Ligand
The congenital malformation split hand/foot (SHFM) is characterized by missing central fingers and dysmorphology or fusion of the remaining ones. During limb development, the apical ectodermal ridge…Read article
Freeze-Fracture Replication of Pyramidal Cells
Application Note for Leica EM HPM100 - Frozen samples (90 μm thick slices frozen by HPM100) were inserted into a double replica table and then fractured into two pieces at –130°C (after insertion of…Read article
Clearing of Fixed Tissue: A Review from a Microscopist’s Perspective
Chemical clearing of fixed tissues is becoming a key instrument for the three-dimensional reconstruction of macroscopic tissue portions, including entire organs. Indeed, the growing interest in this…Read article
BABB Clearing and Imaging for High Resolution Confocal Microscopy
Multipohoton microscopy experiment using Leica TCS SP8 MP and Leica 20x/0.95 NA BABB immersion objective. Understanding kidney microanatomy is key to detecting and identifying early events in kidney…Read article
Cross Section of an Aluminium Sample for Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD)
Application Note for Leica EM TIC020, Leica EM TIC 3X - Electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) is for example used to examine the crystallographic orientation of material. The sample preparation…Read article
Structural Study of C. elegans
Application Note for Leica EM ICE, Leica EM AFS2 - Wildtype L4 stage C. elegans (N2 strain) were placed in the 100 μm deep side of Lecithin-coated (see detailed protocol*) type A 3 mm Cu/Au carriers…Read article
Work Efficiently in Developmental Biology with Stereo and Confocal Microscopy: C. elegans
For scientists, technicians, and teachers working with the worm C. elegans in the research lab or classroom, this report is intended to give useful information to help improve their daly work. The aim…Read article
Cross Sectioning of a Superconductive Wire
Application Note for Leica EM TIC 3X - Purpose: The shape of the wire is difficult for ion beam slope cutting. Goal: Cross sectional preparation to see the structure of the wire.Read article
Measuring the 3D STED-PSF with a new Type of Fluorescent Beads
A new type of fluorescent bead is presented by GATTAquant. These beads, called GATTA-Beads, are characterized by a small diameter (23 nm), high intensity and size uniformity. In combination with…Read article
Ways to Reveal More from your Samples: Ultra-Thin Carbon Films
Application Note for Leica EM ACE600 - Much of the battle involved in obtaining good transmission electron microscopy data is in the specimen preparation itself. Even though some nanomaterials are…Read article
Ultra-thin Carbon Support Films for Improved STEM-EELS Analysis of Nanoparticles
Application Note for Leica EM ACE600 - Recent developments in aberration corrected transmission electron microscopes as well as further improvements in monochromaters and spectrometers have pushed the…Read article
Work More Efficiently In Developmental Biology With Stereo Microscopy: Fruit Flies (Drosophila Melanogaster)
For scientists and technicians working with fruit flies, most often genus Drosophila, this report is intended to give useful information to help improve daily laboratory work by making the steps of…Read article
Thin Metal Foils with Coatings - Sample Preparation for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - Thin foils are mostly unstable because of their thickness of a few microns. This makes it difficult to do slope cutting without any protection of the sample. A…Read article
Micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) of Insect Brain Protocol
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of the blow fly with subsequent X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to detect neuroanatomical features.Read article
Clawed Frog Nuclear Envelope Protocol
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of nuclear pores from clawed frog oocytes with subsequent chromium coating and SEM analysis. Silicon chips containing the samples were…Read article
Cross Sectioning of Painted Concrete
Application Note for Leica EM TIC 3X - Ion beam slope cutting is a method that can achieve flat cuts of material combinations consisting of hard and soft materials. Here, cross sectioning of painted…Read article
Successful Endodontic Treatment with Dental Operating Microscopes
In endodontics, accurate treatment is not only dependent on the technical skills and knowledge of the dentist, but also on clear, detailed visualization of the surgical field. As the outcome of an…Read article
Bacteria Protocol - Critical Point Drying of E. coli for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of E. coli with subsequent platinum / palladium coating and SEM analysis. Sample was inserted into a filter disc (Pore size: 16 - 40 μm)…Read article
Cross Sectioning of Ni/Cu on Steel for EBSD
Application Note for Leica EM TIC 3X - Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) is a surface technique creating a diffraction pattern (Kikuchi-bands). It can be used for crystal orientation mapping,…Read article
Surface Modification of ZnAg Sample - Sample Preparation for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - By means of cleaning, polishing and contrast enhancement a soft ZnAg sample should be prepared to obtain information concerning the grain structure and…Read article
Abstracts of the 6th European Super-Resolution User-Club Meeting
The 6th European Super-Resolution User Club Meeting was held in collaboration with Dr. Timo Zimmermann, CRG, and Dr. Pablo Loza-Alvarez, ICFO, Barcelona. According to the founding principle of the…Read article
Botulinum Neurotoxin Type-A Enters a Non-Recycling Pool of Synaptic Vesicles
Neuronal communication relies on synaptic vesicles undergoing regulated exocytosis and recycling for multiple rounds of fusion. Whether all synaptic vesicles have identical protein content has been…Read article
Visualizing Tropoelastin in a Long-Term Human Elastic Fibre Cell Culture Model
Elastin is an essential protein found in a variety of tissues where resilience and flexibility are needed, such as the skin and the heart. When aiming to engineer suitable implants, elastic fibres are…Read article
Initiation of Lamellipodia and Ruffles Involves Cooperation Between mDia1 and the Arp2/3 Complex
Protrusion of lamellipodia and ruffles requires polymerization of branched actin filaments by the Arp2/3 complex. Although regulation of Arp2/3 complex activity has been extensively investigated, the…Read article
Wall Cress Pod Protocol - Critical Point Drying of Arabidopsis thaliana for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of wall cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) pod with subsequent gold coating and SEM analysis.Read article
Practical Guide for Excellent GSDIM Super-Resolution Images
Do you know that most protists and bacteria lack in one feature that each of our body cell has? Our cells are touch and communicate with one another. They send and receive a variety of signals that…Read article
Work More Efficiently in Developmental Biology With Stereo Microscopy: Zebrafish, Medaka, and Xenopus
Among the aquatic model organisms used in molecular and developmental biology the most prominent are the zebrafish (genus species: Danio rerio), medaka or japanese rice fish (genus species: Oryzias…Read article
Contrast Enhancement of Polished Cross Sections of Semiconductor Structures - Sample Preparation for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - The surfaces of polished cross sections often show fine scratches and residues of the removed material or of the abrasive material. The artefacts are strongly…Read article
Visualization of Membrane Dynamics with Millisecond Temporal Resolution
Application Note for Leica EM ICE, Leica EM AFS2 - Electrical stimulation of neurons combined with high-pressure freezing allows physiological activation of synaptic activity and precise control over…Read article
Nematode E. dianae - Critical Point Drying Protocol for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM CPD300 - Critical point drying of nematode Eubostrichus dianae to detect the ectosymbiotic bacteria layer with subsequent gold coating ans SEM analysis.Read article
Metal Films and Sheets - Sample Preparation for TEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - Most metal films already have a thickness that requires no further mechanical pre-preparation. Frequently, however, they are also domed, which can lead to…Read article
Paper Samples - Sample Preparation for SEM
Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - A coated paper sample has been prepared with ion beam slope cutting in order to test the procedure with regard to its applicability. With the use of ion beam…Read article
