Leica Microsystems
Leica Microsystems is a world leader in microscopes and scientific instruments. Founded as a family business in the nineteenth century, the company’s history was marked by unparalleled innovation on its way to becoming a global enterprise.
Its historically close cooperation with the scientific community is the key to Leica Microsystems’ tradition of innovation, which draws on users’ ideas and creates solutions tailored to their requirements. At the global level, Leica Microsystems is organized in three divisions, all of which are among the leaders in their respective fields: Life Science, Industry and Medical.
The company is represented in over 100 countries with 6 manufacturing facilities in 5 countries, sales and service organizations in 20 countries, and an international network of dealers. The company is headquartered in Wetzlar, Germany.
Primary Beam Splitting Devices for Confocal Microscopes
Current fluorescence microscopy employs incident illumination which requires separation of illumination and emission light. The classical device performing this separation is a color-dependent beam…
Pinhole Effect in Confocal Microscopes
When operating a confocal microscope, or when discussing features and parameters of such a device, we inescapably mention the pinhole and its diameter. This short introductory document is meant to…
Rodent and Small-Animal Surgery
Learn how you can perform rodent (mouse, rat, hamster) and small-animal surgery efficiently with a microscope for developmental biology and medical research applications by reading this article.
Navigating Through the Brain
One of the challenges of neurosurgery is orientation at the surgical site. When resecting tumors, removing arteriovenous malformations, or clipping aneurysms, surgeons often have to work near healthy…
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…
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…
Each Atom Counts: Protect Your Samples Prior to FIB Processing
Application Note for Leica EM ACE600 - Focused ion beam (FIB) technology has become an indispensable tool for site-specific TEM sample preparation. It allows to extract electron transparent specimens…
Factors for Selecting Student Microscopes
If chosen carefully, educational microscopes will open windows to a cosmos of minute detail which delight young minds in schools and universities – and ideally keeps them fascinated enough to make…
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…
Imaging and Analyzing Zebrafish, Medaka, and Xenopus
Discover how to image and analyze zebrafish, medaka, and Xenopus frog model organisms efficiently with a microscope for developmental biology applications from this 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…
Investigating Fruit Flies (Drosophila melanogaster)
Learn how to image and investigate Drosophila fruit fly model organisms efficiently with a microscope for developmental biology applications from this article.
Studying Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans)
Find out how you can image and study C. elegans roundworm model organisms efficiently with a microscope for developmental biology applications from this 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…
Digital Microscopy in Forensics
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…
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”…
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.…
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…
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…
