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.

Comparison when observing a rodent model organism with a Greenough versus CMO (common main objective) stereo microscope for a task like surgery.

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.

Transgenic zebrafish larva where fluorescent proteins label the heart muscle blue, blood and blood vessels red, and all circulatory system cells green. Image recorded with a M205 FA microscope.

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.

Fluorescence stereo microscope image of anesthetized Mediterranean fruit flies recorded with a M205 stereo microscope.

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.

Epoxy Resin Embedding of Animal and Human Tissues for Pathological Diagnosis and Research

Application Note for Leica EM AMW - The tissues were fixed in the modified Karnovsky fixative generally by immersion overnight (at minimum 4h at room temperature). Then pieces of approx. 1mm3 were cut…

Brief Introduction to Freeze Substitution

Freeze-substitution is a process of dehydration, performed at temperatures low enough to avoid the formation of ice crystals and to circumvent the damaging effects observed after ambient-temperature…

Structural details of the C. elegans, head in cross-section. Courtesy of Müller-Reichert T, MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany, and McDonald K, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Brief Introduction to High-Pressure Freezing

Water is the most abundant cellular constituent and therefore important for preserving cellular ultra-structure. Currently the only way to fix cellular constituents without introducing significant…

Perusing Alternatives for Automated Staining of TEM Thin Sections

Contrast in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is mainly produced by electron scattering at the specimen: Structures that strongly scatter electrons are referred to as electron dense and appear as…

An Introduction to CARS Microscopy

CARS overcomes the drawbacks of conventional staining methods by the intrinsic characteristics of the method. CARS does not require labeling because it is highly specific to molecular compounds which…