Science Lab

The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems offers scientific research and teaching material on the subjects of microscopy. The content is designed to support 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!

Micrograph of dinoflagellate cells. Scale bar = 1 µm.

How Marine Microorganism Analysis can be Improved with High-pressure Freezing

In this application example we showcase the use of EM-Sample preparation with high pressure freezing, freeze substiturion and ultramicrotomy for marine biology focusing on ultrastructural analysis of…

How to Keep Your Samples Under Physiological Conditions

The Coral Life workflow combines dynamic data with the best possible sample fixation by high pressure freezing. However, good sample preservation won’t help if your cells are stressed by temperature…

Webinar Coral Life Workflow

With the workflow Coral Life, searching for the needle in the haystack is a thing of the past. Take advantage of correlative light and electron microscopy to identify directly the right cell at the…

Putting Dynamic Live Cell Data into the Ultrastructural Context

With workflow Coral Life, searching for a needle in the haystack is a thing of the past. Take advantage of correlative light and electron microscopy to identify directly the right cell at the right…

Exploring the Structure and Life Cycle of Viruses

The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak started in late December 2019 and has since reached a global pandemic, leading to a worldwide battle against COVID-19. The ever-evolving electron microscopy methods offer a…

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…

Investigating Synapses in Brain Slices with Enhanced Functional Electron Microscopy

A fundamental question of neuroscience is: what is the relationship between structural and functional properties of synapses? Over the last few decades, electrophysiology has shed light on synaptic…

High-pressure freezing: Revealing functional mechanisms of synaptic transmission

Learn more about applying optogenetic stimulation in the EM ICE and how this technology has the potential to reveal structural and functional mechanisms of synaptic transmission. Get a detailed…

Workflows and Instrumentation for Cryo-electron Microscopy

Cryo-electron microscopy is an increasingly popular modality to study the structures of macromolecular complexes and has enabled numerous new insights in cell biology. In recent years, cryo-electron…