The Live Cell Imaging facility
@ Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Kromnigon makes fluorescent labels called FlexiStain that stick to biotin-labelled primary antibodies.
This means that you skip the species matching headache when using multiple antibodies and your labeling is faster! I have not tried myself but they offer free trial kits so give it a try! You are welcome to leave comments on this posts to tell us if it works or not! 🙂
Note: We have not had very good experience with these dyes. Check this post instead.
If you are tired of DAPI bleeding through your weak green channel but are stuck to using blue for the nucleus, you might want to give a try to Syto41.
Must better excitation efficiency at 405 nm and much narrower emission spectrum!
And Syto also comes in other colors. 🙂
That’s it! We have done it! We have moved to Neo! 😀
The trip to Neo (just next door to Novum) started at the end of 2015! 2 years and lots of planning meetings later, all the companies involved (mostly Bergman Labora and Zeiss but also Alveole, La Vision Biotech, MMI and Andor) started dismantling, moving and reassembling our 7 microscopes on the 4th of December. Now, one and a half month later, everything is nearly done! Exciting! 🙂
The next big thing in microscopy comes straight from the sky! Apparently astronomers have been using adaptive optics for years to improve their images and it is only getting into our microscopes now!!
Adaptive optics takes the nightmarish situation seen in b and puts it back straight as in a! This is done by measuring the wave front and deforming a mirror to reshape the wave front to perfection!
Sounds like a dream but I have actually seen it in action at the 2016 AQLM course and there was a definite WOW effect! 🙂
Check this review to learn more
Just imaging being able to image very tiny details in your sample on your favorite microscope without using super resolution!!
Expansion microscopy is definitely worth trying if your sample is fixed and what you want to measure is smaller than the detection limit of the microscope (around 250 nm)! There are people at Scilife who have implemented it and he is happy to collaborate! Just ask us! 🙂
This is just one example among many where expansion microscopy did wonders!
Super resolution course early February at Scilife with great presentations accessible to everyone! I will go to the DNA-paint talk! 🙂
Check it out here.
Eurobioimaging is organizing a microscopy image competition and there is a GoPro camera to grab! 🙂 Apply here!
Talking about Art and Science, here is a tip about how to enjoy every minute (at least I did) of Phallaina by Marietta Ren, a new art form called Bande Défilée in French, which might translate to Streaming Strip? Strolling Graphic Novel? If you ask me, bande défilée sounds best but I am biased! 🙂
The first graphic novel/comic strip entirely made for tactile screens like your mobile phone.
Here is the trailer. One will need to download a big app but it can be deleted afterwards. French or English texts.
It is totally worth it, especially for those who enjoy science/art/diving.
Not exactly a microscopy post but… they do use medical imaging! :-/
The golden Sven-Harrys museum at the heart of Stockholm is currently exhibiting beautiful microscopy images. We proudly counted 6 of them that were acquired with the LCI microscopes! Go and have a look! 🙂
Alyona Minina from the Confocal microscopy facility at SLU came up with really nice videos about Zen and how to use Zeiss confocals
Have a look!
