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!

Advancing Cellular Ultrastructure Research

Freeze-fracture and freeze-etching are useful tools for studying flexible membrane-associated structures such as tight junctions or the enteric glycocalyx. Freeze-fracture and etching are two…

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…

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…

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…

Advancing Cell Biology with Cryo-Correlative Microscopy

Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) advances biological discoveries by merging different microscopes and imaging modalities to study systems in 4D. Combining fluorescence microscopy with…

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…

Ultrastructural Preservation and Improved Visualization of Membranes in Primary Bovine Chromaffin Cells

Intracellular dynamic events, such as protein trafficking, recycling, and degradation as well as signal transduction, to name a few, can be studied using live-cell imaging techniques. However,…

Expert Knowledge on High Pressure Freezing and Freeze Fracturing in the Cryo SEM Workflow

Get an insight in the working methods of the laboratory and learn about the advantages of Cryo SEM investigation in EM Sample Preparation. Find out how high pressure freezing, freeze fracturing and…