Leica Microsystems
Leica Microsystems ist ein weltweit führender Hersteller von Mikroskopen und wissenschaftlichen Instrumenten. Im 19. Jahrhundert als Familienunternehmen gegründet, war die Geschichte des Unternehmens auf dem Weg zum Weltkonzern von beispielloser Innovation geprägt.
Die traditionell enge Zusammenarbeit mit der Wissenschaft ist der Schlüssel zur Innovationstradition von Leica Microsystems, die auf die Ideen der Anwender zurückgreift und auf deren Bedürfnisse zugeschnittene Lösungen schafft. Auf globaler Ebene ist Leica Microsystems in drei Divisionen gegliedert, die alle zu den führenden Anbietern in ihrem jeweiligen Bereich gehören: Life Science, Industrie und Medizin.
Das Unternehmen ist in über 100 Ländern mit 6 Produktionsstandorten in 5 Ländern, Vertriebs- und Serviceorganisationen in 20 Ländern und einem internationalen Händlernetz vertreten. Der Hauptsitz des Unternehmens liegt in Wetzlar, Deutschland.
Life Science Imaging with 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…
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…
A Brief History of Light Microscopy
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.…
Vom Licht zur Erleuchtung: Sensoren und Messverfahren in der konfokalen Mikroskopie
In diesem Beitrag werden die wichtigsten Sensoren kurz vorgestellt, die in der konfokalen Mikroskopie verwendet werden. Mit konfokaler Mikroskopie ist hier „True Confo-cal Scanning“ gemeint, also das…
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…
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…
Confocal and 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
125 Years of Comparison Microscopy
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
