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James DeRose , Ph.D.

James DeRose

James DeRose is a scientific and technical writer for stereo and digital microscopy at Leica Microsystems. He has more than 20 years of experience in scientific and technical writing for book and journal publications. He has co-authored more than 35 scientific and technical publications published in international journals, more than 45 presentations for international scientific conferences and symposiums, and 2 patent applications. He is lead editor for the book "Aluminium Alloy Corrosion of Aircraft Structures: Modelling and Simulation" published in 2012. This book resulted from the EU 6th Framework funded project SICOM. He has managed and contributed to scientific and technical projects focusing on applied R&D and applications development in the fields of interfacial chemistry and physics, thermal and chemical engineering, corrosion and metallography, surface coatings and analysis, materials science, biotechnology, and cellular biology. He has expertise with various types of microscopy and analytical methods. In the past, he worked on applied R&D and applications development projects while at the California Institute of Technology, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, as well as the company Cytion (Molecular Devices). James obtained a doctorate in physics with applied research emphasis in surface science, physical chemistry, and biophysics in 1993 from Arizona State University. He has worked at Leica Microsystems since August 2013.

Preparation of an IC-chip cross section: grinding and polishing of the chip cross section.

Cross-section Analysis for Electronics Manufacturing

Cross-section analysis for electronics concerning quality control and failure analysis of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and assemblies (PCBAs), integrated circuits (ICs), etc. are described in this…

Studying Virus Replication with Fluorescence Microscopy

The results from research on SARS-CoV-2 virus replication kinetics, adaption capabilities, and cytopathology in Vero E6 cells, done with the help of fluorescence microscopy, are described in this…
Image of a Siemens star, where the diameter of the 1st black line circle is 10 mm and the 2nd is 20 mm, taken via an eyepiece of a M205 A stereo microscope. The rectangles represent the field of view (FOV) of a Leica digital camera when installed with various C-mounts (red 0.32x, blue 0.5x, green 0.63x).

Understanding Clearly the Magnification of Microscopy

To help users better understand the magnification of microscopy and how to determine the useful range of magnification values for digital microscopes, this article provides helpful guidelines.
Fluorescence microscopy image of liver tissue where DNA in the nuclei are stained with Feulgen-pararosanilin and visualized with transmitted green light.

Epi-Illumination Fluorescence and Reflection-Contrast Microscopy

This article discusses the development of epi-illumination and reflection contrast for fluorescence microscopy concerning life-science applications. Much was done by the Ploem research group…
Image of an onion flake taken with a basic Leica compound microscope after it was tested for resistance to fungus and mold growth following part 11 of the ISO 9022 standard.

ISO 9022 Standard Part 11 - Testing Microscopes with Severe Conditions

This article describes a test to determine the robustness of Leica microscopes to mold and fungus growth. The test follows the specifications of the ISO 9022 part 11 standard for optical instruments.
EBSD grain size distribution of the cross section of a gold wire within a silicon matrix from inside a CPU (central processing unit of a computer). The grains are highlighted with arbitrary colors.

High-Quality EBSD Sample Preparation

This article describes a method for EBSD sample preparation of challenging materials. The high-quality samples required for electron backscatter diffraction are prepared with broad ion-beam milling.
Stereo microscopes are often considered the workhorses of laboratories and production sites.

Key Factors to Consider When Selecting a Stereo Microscope

This article explains key factors that help users determine which stereo microscope solution can best meet their needs, depending on the application.

Rapid and Reliable Examination of PCBs & PCBAs with Digital Microscopy

This article explains why users can achieve fast and reliable workflows for quality control, failure analysis, and R&D of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and assemblies (PCBAs) with the DVM6 digital…
Raw widefield and THUNDER image of calcium transients in Drosophila embryos. Courtesy A. Carreira-Rosario, Clandinin laboratory, California, USA.

Central Nervous System (CNS) Development and Activity in Organisms

This article shows how studying central nervous system (CNS) development in Drosophila-melanogaster embryos expressing a GCaMP calcium indicator in the neurons can be improved with a THUNDER Imager.
Patch pipette touching a murine hippocampal neuron. Image courtesy of A. Aguado, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

What is the Patch-Clamp Technique?

This article gives an introduction to the patch-clamp technique and how it is used to study the physiology of ion channels for neuroscience and other life-science fields.
Raw widefield (left) and Computationally Cleared image (right) of mouse neuromuscular junctions acquired with a THUNDER Imager. Courtesy of A. Yung and M. Krasnow in California, USA.

Neural Basis of Breathing, Vocalization, and Diseases of the Larynx

This article shows how research on diseases of the larynx can be improved with a THUNDER Imager and Computational Clearing. Motor neurons in whole mounts of mouse laryngeal muscle are better…
Neurons imaged with DIC contrast.

Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy

This article demonstrates how differential interference contrast (DIC) can be actually better than brightfield illumination when using microscopy to image unstained biological specimens.
The Emspira 3 digital microscope offers what users need for comprehensive visual inspection, including comparison, measurement, and documentation sharing.

Digital Inspection Microscope for Industrial Applications

Factors users should consider before choosing a digital inspection microscope for industrial applications, including quality control (QC), failure analysis (FA), and R&D, are described in this…

Going Beyond Deconvolution

Widefield fluorescence microscopy is often used to visualize structures in life science specimens and obtain useful information. With the use of fluorescent proteins or dyes, discrete specimen…
Inspection microscope image of a printed circuit board (PCB) taken with a ring light (RL) and near vertical illumination (NVI).

Microscope Illumination for Industrial Applications

Inspection microscope users can obtain information from this article which helps them choose the optimal microscope illumination or lighting system for inspection of parts or components.
Image of MDCK (Madin-Darby canine kidney) cells taken with phase contrast.

Phase Contrast and Microscopy

This article explains phase contrast, an optical microscopy technique, which reveals fine details of unstained, transparent specimens that are difficult to see with common brightfield illumination.

Immersion Objectives

How an immersion objective, which has a liquid medium between it and the specimen being observed, helps increase the numerical aperture and microscope resolution is explained in this article.
Raw widefield and THUNDER image of Drosophila follicles. Image courtesy of M. Khoury and D. Bilder, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Investigating Epithelial Morphogenesis and the Growth of Epithelia

This article shows how rapidly acquired THUNDER images of Drosophila follicles or egg chambers help distinguish apicobasal proteins when studying epithelial morphogenesis for cancer research.
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