Inverted Microscope Solution DMi8 S Platform
Fluorescence Microscopy
Fluorescence is one of the most commonly used physical phenomena in biological and analytical microscopy, mainly because of its high sensitivity and high specificity. Find out how fluorescence…
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Micromanipulation
Witness automated, fast micromanipulation with this easy and convenient system from Leica Microsystems. Fully equipped with inverted research microscope and electronic micromanipulators, these…
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Photomanipulation
The term photomanipulation encompasses a range of techniques that utilize the properties of fluorescent molecules to initiate events and observe how dynamic complexes behave over time in living cells.…
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Live Cell Imaging
Shifting perspective from single microscope components to a full working live cell imaging solution, Leica Microsystems integrates microscope, LAS X imaging software, cameras, and dedicated…
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Cell Culture
Growing cells under lab conditions is the base for scientists working in fields of cell or developmental biology, cancer research, or any kind of life science and pharma research. Find out how Leica…
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Science Lab Topic:
Widefield Microscopy
How to Develop an Airway Epithelial Cell Model
The present study describes the optimal growth conditions for the proliferation and differentiation of bovine bronchial epithelial cells (BBECs). The cells are grown at an air-liquid interface (ALI)…
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Science Lab Topic:
Widefield Microscopy
Proline Metabolism is Essential for Trypanosoma brucei brucei Survival in the Tsetse Vector
Bloodsucking insects play a major role in the transmission of pathogens that cause major tropical diseases. Their capacity to transmit these diseases is directly associated with the availability and…
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Science Lab Topic:
Confocal Microscopy
mTORC1 Promotes Proliferation of Immature Schwann Cells and Myelin Growth of Differentiated Schwann Cells
The myelination of axons is essential for neuronal wiring and normal nervous system functions. In the peripheral nervous system, Schwann cells (SCs) form myelin sheaths around axons during nerve…
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Science Lab Topic:
Live-Cell Imaging
Solvent immersion imprint lithography
We expand upon our recent, fundamental report on solvent immersion imprint lithography (SIIL) and describe a semi-automated and high-performance procedure for prototyping polymer microfluidics and…
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Science Lab Topic:
CRISPR-Cas9
Role of circadian gene Clock during differentiation of mouse pluripotent stem cells
Biological rhythms controlled by the circadian clock are absent in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). However, they start to develop during the differentiation of pluripotent ESCs to downstream cells.…
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Science Lab Topic:
Confocal Microscopy
KChIP2 regulates the cardiac Ca²⁺ transient and myocyte contractility by targeting ryanodine receptor activity
Pathologic electrical remodeling and attenuated cardiac contractility are featured characteristics of heart failure. Coinciding with these remodeling events is a loss of the K+ channel interacting…
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Science Lab Topic:
Widefield Microscopy
Effect of curcumin analogs onα-synuclein aggregation and cytotoxicity
Alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) aggregation into oligomers and fibrils is associated with dopaminergic neuron loss occurring in Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathogenesis. Compounds that modulate α-Syn aggregation…
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Science Lab Topic:
Widefield Microscopy
Expression Analysis of Platelet‐derived Growth Factor Receptor Alpha and its Ligands in the Developing Mouse Lung
Activation of the platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐α (PDGFR α) signaling pathway is critically important during lung alveogenesis, the process in lung development during which alveoli are…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
Acute Transcriptional Up-regulation Specific to Osteoblasts/Osteoclasts in Medaka Fish Immediately after Exposure to Microgravity
Bone loss is a serious problem in spaceflight; however, the initial action of microgravity has not been identified. To examine this action, we performed live-imaging of animals during a space mission…
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Science Lab Topic:
Widefield Microscopy
Adipose Stem Cells Display Higher Regenerative Capacities and More Adaptable Electro-Kinetic Properties Compared to Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells
Adipose stem cells (ASCs) have recently emerged as a more viable source for clinical applications, compared to bone-marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs) because of their abundance and easy…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Koehler Illumination: A Brief History and a Practical Set Up in Five Easy Steps
The technique of Koehler Illumination is one of the most important and fundamental techniques in achieving optimum imaging in any given light microscope set-up. Although it should be routinely used as…
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Science Lab Topic:
Live-Cell Imaging
Introduction to Mammalian Cell Culture
Mammalian cell culture is one of the basic pillars of life sciences. Without the ability to grow cells in the lab, the fast progress in disciplines like cell biology, immunology, or cancer research…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Immersion Objectives: Using Oil, Glycerol, or Water to Overcome some of the Limits of Resolution
To examine specimens at high magnifications using the microscope, there are a number of factors which need to be taken into consideration. These include resolution, numerical aperture (NA), the…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Graphene-Based Microbots for Toxic Heavy Metal Removal and Recovery from Water
Heavy metal contamination in water is a serious risk to the public health and other life forms on earth. Current research in nanotechnology is developing new nanosystems and nanomaterials for the fast…
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Science Lab Topic:
Widefield Microscopy
Introduction to Widefield Microscopy
One of the most basic microscopy techniques is known as ‘Widefield Microscopy’. It is fundamentally any technique in which the entire specimen of interest is exposed to the light source with the…
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Science Lab Topic:
Stereo Microscopy
Coming to Grips with Biological Information Through Flexible Organic Electronics: Developing Bendable and Stretchable Biosensors and Device
What do you associate with the word sensor? Perhaps technologies delivering automation in factories and other production sites? That may be what comes to mind, but advances in organic electronics are…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
What is Photomanipulation?
The term photomanipulation describes a wide range of techniques that enable the microscopist the transition from passive observer to instigator of events by offering a way of interacting with their…
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Science Lab Topic:
Digital Microscopy
Webinar On-Demand: Quality with Confidence
From routine quality assurance to advanced 3D analysis of complex surface structures, there is a digital microscope solution to meet almost any request
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
Photoactivatable, photoconvertible, and photoswitchable Fluorescent Proteins
Fluorescent proteins (FPs) such as GFP, YFP or DsRed are powerful tools to visualize cellular components in living cells. Nevertheless, there are circumstances when classical FPs reach their limits.…
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Science Lab Topic:
Neuroscience
Clap On, Clap Off. Protein On, Protein Off
Unlike genetic or pharmacological manipulation, light-controlled proteins respond immediately, can be temporally and spatially triggered, are reversible, and are specific to the protein of interest.…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Milestones in Incident Light Fluorescence Microscopy
Since the middle of the last century, fluorescence microscopy developed into a bio scientific tool with one of the biggest impacts on our understanding of life. Watching cells and proteins with the…
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Science Lab Topic:
Super-Resolution
The Molecular Architecture of Hemidesmosomes as Revealed by Super-Resolution Microscopy
Hemidesmosomes have been extensively studied by immunofluorescence microscopy, but due to its limited resolution, their precise organization remained poorly understood. We studied hemidesmosome…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
Chronic Inflammation Under the Microscope
In the course of chronic inflammation certain body areas are recurrently inflamed. This goes along with many human diseases. With the help of widefield light microscopy, the underlying processes can…
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Science Lab Topic:
TIRF Microscopy
TIRF Publication List
This monthly updated references list presents current papers using Leica AM TIRF in the major application fields for TIRF microscopy.
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Factors to Consider When Selecting a Research Microscope
An optical microscope is often one of the central devices in a life-science research lab. It can be used for various applications which shed light on many scientific questions. Thereby the…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Microscope Resolution: Concepts, Factors and Calculation
In microscopy, the term ‘resolution’ is used to describe the ability of a microscope to distinguish detail. In other words, this is the minimum distance at which two distinct points of a specimen can…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
Gene Editing with CRISPR/Cas9 - Breakthrough in Genome Engineering
The CRISPR/Cas9 system is one of several different bacterial systems for defense against viral attacks. It consists of two main components. One is a small piece of RNA which binds to the viral target…
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Science Lab Topic:
Super-Resolution
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Super-Resolution
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Stereo Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Widefield Microscopy
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”…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Super-Resolution
CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Endogenous Protein Tagging for RESOLFT Super-Resolution Microscopy of Living Human Cells
Overexpression is a notorious concern in conventional and especially in super-resolution fluorescence light microscopy studies because it may cause numerous artifacts including ectopic sub-cellular…
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Science Lab Topic:
Confocal Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
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,…
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Science Lab Topic:
TIRF Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Live-Cell Imaging
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.
…
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Science Lab Topic:
Super-Resolution
Finding, Defining and Breaking the Diffraction Barrier in Microscopy – A Historical Perspective
Diffraction plays a crucial role in microscopy as it prevents the recording of arbitrarily sharp images with conventional light microscopes. Many names are connected with the notion of diffraction and…
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Science Lab Topic:
Neuroscience
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Neuroscience
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
Step by Step Guide to Fluorescence Microscopy
Fluorescence Microscopy is a special form of light microscopy. It uses fluorescence to highlight structures in fixed and living biological specimens instead of using absorption, phase or interference…
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Science Lab Topic:
Neuroscience
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.…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
The Principles of Modulation Contrast
Modulation contrast creates 3D-like images of unstained specimens, rendering it the contrasting method of choice for applications like e.g. in vitro fertilization, where DIC is not possible (due to…
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Science Lab Topic:
TIRF Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
TIRF Microscopy
Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy
Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) is a special technique in fluorescence microscopy developed by Daniel Axelrod at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the early 1980s. TIRF microscopy…
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Science Lab Topic:
TIRF Microscopy
Protein Transport Processes at the Apical Membrane of Polarized Epithelial Cells
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Live-Cell Imaging
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 focusing on dynamic…
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Science Lab Topic:
Confocal Microscopy
Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching (FRAP) and its Offspring
FRAP (Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching) can be used to study cellular protein dynamics: For visualization the protein of interest is fused to a fluorescent protein or a fluorescent dye. A…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Optical Contrast Methods
Optical contrast methods give the potential to easily examine living and colorless specimens. Different microscopic techniques aim to change phase shifts caused by the interaction of light with the…
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Science Lab Topic:
Basics in Microscopy
Integrated Modulation Contrast (IMC)
Hoffman modulation contrast has established itself as a standard for the observation of unstained, low-contrast biological specimens. The integration of the modulator in the beam path of themodern…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Fluorescence Microscopy
Fluorescence in Microscopy
Fluorescence microscopy is a special form of light microscopy. It uses the ability of fluorochromes to emit light after being excited with light of a certain wavelength. Proteins of interest can be…
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Science Lab Topic:
Live-Cell Imaging
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…
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Science Lab Topic:
Live-Cell Imaging
Exploring Cell Logistics
Using TIRF microscopy, scientists have been able to take a closer look at intracellular transport processes with the example of the galactose-binding protein Galectin-3, which has been identified as a…
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