Science Lab

Learn. Share. Contribute. The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems. Find scientific research and teaching material on the subject of microscopy. The portal supports beginners, experienced practitioners and scientists alike in their everyday work and experiments. Explore interactive tutorials and application notes, discover the basics of microscopy as well as high-end technologies. Become part of the Science Lab community and share your expertise.

A Guide to Phase Contrast

A phase contrast light microscope offers a way to view the structures of many types of biological specimens in greater contrast without the need of stains.

Virally labeled neurons (red) and astrocytes (green) in a cortical spheroid derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. THUNDER Model Organism Imager with a 2x 0.15 NA objective at 3.4x zoom was used to produce this 425 µm Z-stack (26 positions), which is presented here as an Extended Depth of Field (EDoF) projection. Images courtesy of Dr. Fikri Birey from the Dr. Sergiu Pasca laboratory at Stanford University, 3165 Porter Dr., Palo Alto, CA

Download The Guide to Live Cell Imaging

In life science research, live cell imaging is an indispensable tool to visualize cells in a state as in vivo as possible. This E-book reviews a wide range of important considerations to take to…

Regulators of Actin Cytoskeletal Regulation and Cell Migration in Human NK Cells

Dr. Mace will describe new advances in our understanding of the regulation of human NK cell actin cytoskeletal remodeling in cell migration and immune synapse formation derived from confocal and…

Understanding Motor Sequence Generation Across Spatiotemporal Scales

We have developed a microscopy-based pipeline to characterize a developmentally critical behavior at the pupal stage of development, called the ecdysis sequence. We study brain-wide neuronal activity…

Root-hypocotyl junction of Arabidopsis thaliana. Image acquired with TauContrast. Sample courtesy: Dr. Melanie Krebs, COS, University of Heidelberg.

Benefits of TauContrast to Image Complex Samples

In this interview, Dr. Timo Zimmermann talks about his experience with the application of TauSense tools and their potential for the investigation of demanding samples such as thick samples or…

Intraoperative OCT-Assisted Surgical Management of Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is a plague to patients and their surgeons after recent rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RD). Despite excellent initial surgical outcomes, it is the most common…

Fast, High-quality Vitrification with the EM ICE High Pressure Freezer

The EM ICE High Pressure Freezer was developed with a unique freezing principle and uses only a single pressurization and cooling liquid: liquified nitrogen (LN2). This design enables three major…

Cryo FIB lamella - Overlay of SEM and confocal fluorescence image. Target structure in yeast cells (nuclear pore proteine Nup159-Atg8-split Venus, red) marked by an arrow. Scale bar: 5 µm. Alegretti et al., Nature 586, 796-800 (2020).

Targeting Active Recycling Nuclear Pore Complexes using Cryo Confocal Microscopy

In this article, how cryo light microscopy and, in particular cryo confocal microscopy, is used to improve the reliability of cryo EM workflows is described. The quality of the EM grids and samples is…

How Augmented Reality is Transforming Vascular Neurosurgery

Augmented Reality is changing surgery, with new information helping to improve the precision and safety of procedures. This is especially true in vascular neurosurgery where Augmented Reality is…