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Science Lab

Science Lab

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…

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…
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…
Ultramicrotomy; ARTOS 3D

Introduction to Ultramicrotomy

When studying samples, to visualize their fine structure with nanometer scale resolution, most often electron microscopy is used. There are 2 types: scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which images the…
Array tomography image of T-cells in mouse lymph nodes.

High Resolution Array Tomography with Automated Serial Sectioning

The optimization of high resolution, 3-dimensional (3D), sub-cellular structure analysis with array tomography using an automated serial sectioning solution, achieving a high section density on the…

Visualization of DNA Molecules

Precise low angle rotary shadowing with heavy metals (like platinum) can be used in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe molecular details of objects previously absorbed on a thin, low…

Ion Beam Polishing of Sample Surfaces - Sample Preparation for SEM

Application Note for Leica EM RES102 - Ion milling can be used to reduce the roughness of sample surfaces. Small angles less than 6° with respect to the sample surface are necessary. The high voltage…

Imaging of Host Cell-bacteria Interactions using Correlative Microscopy under Cryo-conditions

Pathogenic bacteria have developed intriguing strategies to establish and promote infections in their respective hosts. Most bacterial pathogens initiate infectious diseases by adhering to host cells…

Brief Introduction to Freeze Fracture and Etching

Freeze fracture describes the technique of breaking a frozen specimen to reveal internal structures. Freeze etching is the sublimation of surface ice under vacuum to reveal details of the fractured…
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