Label-free microscopy relies on gentle illumination of samples away from harsh fluorescent light. This allows for imaging, long or short-term, without inducing phototoxicity. Although brightfield and phase contrast microscopy are available on our widefield microscopes, the microscopes presented here use different acquisition methods and the data produced is significantly richer. Nanolive The Nanolive is a single lens (63x) microscope that reconstruct samples in 3D using holotomography. This is achieved by taking stacks of pictures through the sample, with each plane illuminated at a different angle. Since biological samples have different refractive indexes, light is diffracted (bends) and scatter at slightly different angles, which can be measured. The resultant data are high resolution pictures of individual cells where intracellular objects such as mitochondria, lipid droplets, ER, etc.. are distinguishable without staining. The Nanolive is capable of imaging cells in 2D in fluorescence (DAPI, GFP, mCherry, and a Cy5 filter available on request). This allows you e.g. to train Artificial Intelligence networks to recognise objects based on their refractive index. The Nanolive belongs to Prof. Steve Pollard who generously shares this microscope. As such, this microscope is run as a service where we drive the microscope with your samples. The Nanolive only works with specific plates. Contact us for compatibility. Location: CRM IRR North Imaging Hub, contact IRR.Imaging@ed.ac.uk for sample imaging Phasefocus Livecyte The Livecyte uses Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI), also known as Ptychography. It projects light on a virtual lens that reconstructs cell volume in 3 dimensions. This microscope, designed for live imaging, has low magnification lenses (10x, 20x) and can also operate in fluorescence. Location: IRR Imaging Hub, contact IRR-hcs@ed.ac.uk for sample imaging This article was published on 2024-08-15
