Live Cell Imaging
With the variety of fluorescent proteins and multicolored probes that have been developed, it is now possible to label virtually any molecule. The ability to visualize protein dynamics in vesicles, organelles, cells, and tissues has provided new insights into how cells function in healthy and disease states. These insights include the spatiotemporal dynamics of processes like mitosis, embryonic development, and cytoskeleton changes.
When studying live cells, common obstacles include phototoxicity and photodamage. To capture fast biological processes, it is crucial to keep the cells healthy and obtain crisp images for reliable data that are free of artifacts. Live‐cell microscopy often requires a compromise between image quality and cell health. During imaging, certain environmental conditions must be maintained to avoid changes in the cells.
A variety of high-performance Leica imaging solutions can overcome these challenges for live-cell imaging enabling new information for cellular physiology and dynamics to be discovered.
Our experts on solutions for live cell imaging applications are happy to help you with their advice.
Cell Viability & Dynamics During Imaging
Leica Microsystems provides you with intelligent innovations in live-cell imaging. Our solutions help you get the best image quality while protecting your samples.
Most cellular processes occur in 3 dimensions over time. Therefore, cells need to be imaged in four dimensions (XYZ and time) to obtain a complete picture. Time‐lapse imaging is used to capture cell events over timescales from seconds to months. Repeated imaging of cells at particular points in time is also possible. To protect cell viability during this process, live-cell imaging requires the temperature, pH, and humidity to be kept under control. Light exposure should also be at a minimum to avoid phototoxicity.
Leica Microsystems offers imaging solutions that help optimize your study of live cells, even over long periods of time. They provide the necessary image contrast and resolution to facilitate the analysis of dynamic events. Some Leica systems also enable high-speed imaging, so no key cellular events are missed.
Your Live Cell Imaging Needs
To perform successful live-cell imaging experiments, using the right platform is critical. When choosing an optical microscope for live‐cell imaging, the following 3 variables should be considered: detector sensitivity (signal‐to‐noise ratio), specimen viability, and image-acquisition speed.
Methods suitable for live-cell applications enable visualization of the dynamics without causing cell damage, as it can affect the results.
Live‐cell imaging is mainly performed with fluorescence microscopy. Widefield microscopy, providing flexible excitation and fast acquisition, is typically used to visualize cell dynamics and development over long times. Confocal microscopy is typically used to study subcellular dynamic events. Multiphoton microscopy alllows excitation with longer wavelength light reducing photobleaching and extending cell viability. Finally, fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) can be applied to study fast dynamic signaling events in cells.
Leica Microsystems offers the latest innovations in widefield and confocal imaging technologies for fast 3D live cell imaging with the THUNDER Imagers, STELLARIS confocal platform, and FLIM.
Live Cell Imaging Products
Filter by Area of Application
STELLARIS
With the STELLARIS confocal platform, we have re-imagined confocal microscopy to get you closer to the truth.
THUNDER Imager Model Organism
The THUNDER Imager Model Organism allows fast and easy 3D exploration of whole organisms for developmental or molecular biology research.
STELLARIS DLS
Discover new applications by combining confocal and light-sheet microscopy
K5
sCMOS Microscope Camera
THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture & 3D Assay
THUNDER Imagers provide you with a solution for advanced 3D cell culture assays, whether you want to study stem cells, spheroids, or organoids.
THUNDER Imager Tissue
The THUNDER Imager Tissue allows real-time fluorescence imaging of 3D tissue sections typically used in neuroscience and histology research.
STELLARIS 8 FALCON
The contrast is clear. Lifetime imaging in an instant.
PAULA
Smart Cell Imager
LAS X Life Science
Software platform for life science applications
DMi8 S Platform
For routine to live cell research
Infinity TIRF
Multicolor advanced TIRF module
Leica DMi1
Entry level inverted microscope
Leica DM IL LED
Inverted Laboratory Microscope with LED Illumination
Leica DFC365 FX
1.4 MP cooled monochrome camera for standard live cell imaging of GFP-expressing cells and tissues
About Live Cell Imaging
Besides the structural organization of cells or organs, dynamic processes are a major contributor to a functioning biological entity. Naturally, these processes can be best observed in living cells with non-invasive techniques like optical methods, collectively called “live-cell imaging” methods. Live-cell imaging covers all techniques where live cells are observed with microscopes – from the observation of embryogenesis with stereo microscopes, via cell growth studies with compound microscopes, until studies of physiological states of cells or cellular transport using fluorescent dyes or proteins. Although being highly demanding for both, experimenter and equipment (e.g. imaging systems, climate control), live-cell imaging techniques deliver results that are indispensable for present-day research.
Individual Macromolecule Motion in a Crowded Living Cell
There is solid evidence for analyzing fluorescence correlation and dual color fluorescence crosscorrelation spectroscopy data ( FCS and dual color FCCS) in cellular applications by equations based on…Read article
The Bimodally Expressed MicroRNA miR‐142 Gates Exit from Pluripotency
A stem cell's decision to self‐renew or differentiate is thought to critically depend on signaling cues provided by its environment. It is unclear whether stem cells have the intrinsic capacity to…Read article
What Makes sCMOS Microscope Cameras so Popular?
sCMOS cameras are more sensitive and are capable of much higher acquisition speed than cameras with other sensor types. Even though CCD cameras are widely used in live cell imaging and time-lapse…Read articleHow to do a Proper Cell Culture Quick Check
In order to successfully work with mammalian cell lines, they must be grown under controlled conditions and require their own specific growth medium. In addition, to guarantee consistency their growth…Read article
4Pi-RESOLFT Nanoscopy
Here we apply the 4Pi scheme to RESOLFT nanoscopy using two-photon absorption for the on-switching of fluorescent proteins. We show that in this combination, the lobes are so low that low-light level,…Read article
Light Sheet Microscopy Turned Vertically
Living cells and organisms often suffer from the high light intensities used for fluorescent imaging. Light sheet microscopy reduces phototoxic effects and bleaching by illuminating a specimen in only…Read article
Probes that FIT RNA
We have been developing new tools based on fluorogenic forced intercalation (FIT) probes for RNA detection quantification and interference in biological samples. Upon duplex formation with target…Read article
Fluorescent Proteins Illuminate Cell Biology
Green fluorescent protein (GFP) isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria and GFP-like fluorescent proteins from other animals have had an important role in the technical innovations that have…Read article
Cortical Actin Networks Induce Spatio-temporal Confinement of Phospholipids in the Plasma Membrane – A Minimally Invasive Investigation by STED-FCS
Important discoveries in the last decades have changed our view of the plasma membrane organisation. Specifically, the cortical cytoskeleton has emerged as a key modulator of the lateral diffusion of…Read article
Multi-protein Assemblies Underlie the Mesoscale Organization of the Plasma Membrane
Most proteins have uneven distributions in the plasma membrane. Broadly speaking, this may be caused by mechanisms specific to each protein, or may be a consequence of a general pattern that affects…Read article
Correlating Intravital Multi-Photon Microscopy to 3D Electron Microscopy of Invading Tumor Cells Using Anatomical Reference Points
Cancer research unsing multiphoton microscopy and 3D electron microscopy. Correlative microscopy combines the advantages of both light and electron microscopy to enable imaging of rare and transient…Read article
Third Harmonic Generation Microscopy – Label-Free 3D-Tissue Imaging and Blood Flow Characterization
THG microscopy as special variants of multiphoton microscopy. Third Harmonic Generation (THG) microscopy is a non-fluorescent multi-photon technique that combines the advantages of label-free…Read article
Interview with Dr. Gertrude Bunt and Prof. Fred S. Wouters on the FOM 2015
Only a few days to go before the start of Focus on Microscopy 2015 in Göttingen, Germany. This year’s FOM is being organized by Dr. Gertrude Bunt and Prof. Dr. Fred S. Wouters from the University…Read article
Pathways to Optical STED Microscopy
STED nanoscopy has evolved to a highly versatile tool for the observation of the living cell, more and more finding its way into state-of-the-art optical imaging facilities in biomedical research…Read article
Customized Patterned Substrates for Highly Versatile Correlative Light-Scanning Electron Microscopy
Correlative light electron microscopy (CLEM) combines the advantages of light and electron microscopy, thus making it possible to follow dynamic events in living cells at nanometre resolution. Various…Read article
Towards Digital Photon Counting Cameras for Single-molecule Optical Nanoscopy
A SPAD array camera with single-photon sensitivity and zero read-out noise allows for the detection of extremely weak signals at ultra-fast imaging speeds. With temporal resolution in the order of…Read article
Video: High Speed Scanning – With two Scanners in one System
High speed scanning is necessary to image rapidly changing biological processes. With traditional scanning techniques, imaging speed is limited by the number of fluorophores in a specimen. And, rapid…Read article
Immunotherapy to Combat Cancer: "Sleeping Beauty" – DNA Plasmid-based Gene Transfer System to Modify T Cells
Fighting cancer is a major goal of present-day medicine. So far mainly surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy are utilized to extinguish cancerous tissue, or at least set limits to it. …Read article
A Bright Dye for Live-Cell STED Microscopy
The aim of cell biology is to study smallest details on a cellular level preferably in a live cell experiment. By providing fast and direct super-resolution, STED (Stimulated Emission Depletion)…Read article
Axon Injury and Regeneration in the Adult Drosophila
Neural regeneration is a fascinating process with profound impact on human health, such that defining biological and genetic pathways is of interest. Here we describe an in vivo preparation for…Read article
How to Choose the Right Confocal Microscope for Your Lab?
Confocal microscopy has come a very long way since its invention more than a half-century ago. Today, with novel technology driven by leading imaging companies, it has become the standard for…Read article
Nanoscale Protein Diffusion by STED-Based Pair Correlation Analysis
We describe for the first time the combination between cross-pair correlation function analysis (pair correlation analysis or pCF) and stimulated emission depletion (STED) to obtain diffusion maps at…Read article
ICln: A New Regulator of Non-Erythroid 4.1R Localisation and Function
To optimise the efficiency of cell machinery, cells can use the same protein (often called a hub protein) to participate in different cell functions by simply changing its target molecules. There are…Read article
Analysis of Autofluorescence in Polymorphonuclear Neutrophils: A New Tool for Early Infection Diagnosis
Diagnosing bacterial infection (BI) remains a challenge for the attending physician. An ex vivo infection model based on human fixed polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) gives an autofluorescence…Read article
Spectral and Structural Comparison Between Bright and Dim Green Fluorescent Proteins in Amphioxus
The cephalochordate Amphioxus naturally co-expresses fluorescent proteins (FPs) with different brightness, which thus offers the rare opportunity to identify FP molecular feature/s that are associated…Read article
The Environment Makes the Stem Cell
A recent publication in Nature shows that all stem cells divide and compete for niche space by passively "kicking out" others so that eventually one stem cell takes over the whole niche. Jacco van…Read article
Imaging Pheromone Sensing in a Mouse Vomeronasal Acute Tissue Slice Preparation
In mice, the ability to detect pheromones is principally mediated by the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Here, an acute tissue slice preparation of VNO for performing calcium imaging is described. This…Read article
Tracking Glomerular Fate Over Long Time Distances
Multi-channel multiphoton microscopy with dedicated optics for CLARITY. The glomerular filtration barrier (GFB) is a complex spatial structure within the kidney glomerulis where ultrafiltration…Read article
Fully Automated Tracking of Chloroplasts in Elodea Leaf Cells from 4D Image Data
Fully automated tracking of moving 3D structures in living cells represents several challenges that are typical to the analysis of biological image data. Taking 4D image data from chloroplasts in…Read article
Glucose-Stimulated Calcium Dynamics in Islets of Langerhans in Acute Mouse Pancreas Tissue Slices
In endocrine cells within islets of Langerhans calcium ions couple cell stimulation to hormone secretion. Since the advent of modern fluorimetry, numerous in vitro studies employing primarily isolated…Read article
