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!

The Morbus Parkinson Puzzle

A characteristic sign of M. Parkinson is the deterioration of dopaminergic neurons in the mid-brain, specifically in the substantia nigra (SN, black substance). Different causes and forms of this…

Laser Microdissection (LMD) and Fancy Applications

New and far-reaching applications have recently been opened up in the field of laser microdissection. In addition to conventional dissection, the laser microdissection system LMD of Leica Microsystems…

Video: How to Achieve Fast Precise Cutting Lines in Laser Microdissection

This video explains the laser beam deflection principle of Leica Microsystems‘ laser microdissection systems (Leica LMD). The laser, the beam expander, motorized attenuator, motorized iris diaphragm…

Quantitative One-Step Protocol to Detect Transcripts in Laser Microdissected Samples

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are an essential feature of the biology and ecology of most terrestrial plants and, as biofertilizers, AM fungi are an emerging issue in many projects focused on…

Stem Cells in the Aging Process – the Signal Protein p53 as "Guardian of the Genome"

The physiological process of aging is an elementary part of life. The processes responsible for the aging process and the effect they have is one of the key focuses of biomedical research. Dr. Yvonne…

Laser capture microdissection of adult mouse retinal layers.

Region-Specific Gene Expression in Adult Mouse CNS Tissues

Different areas of the Central Nervous System CNS display a specific and selective gene expression profile. Here, we used the Laser Microdissection system Leica LMD6500 to study region-specific mRNA…

Brain section 12 μm, before dissection, objective 63x, stained with Toluidin blue.

An Introduction to Laser Microdissection

Laser microdissection is a highly selective process for preparing samples for DNA, RNA and protein analysis. It is a microscope-controlled manipulation technique for the precise separation of samples…

Applications of Laser Microdissection

Laser microdissection and laser micromanipulation are suitable for gaining a differentiated insight into the function of genes and proteins, and are used for a wide range of applications in…