M41 – LSM980 Axio Observer (inverted) with Airyscan 2 and incubation

The M41 system is an inverted point laser scanning confocal microscope – LSM980. It is a spectral system allowing the free choice of detection and the acquisition of lambda-stacks as well as subsequent unmixing for the separation of dyes with overlapping emission spectra.

LSM980 features 4 highly sensitive GaAsP (Gallium Arsenide) detectors with a QE of 45% and up to 2x SNR as compared to standards PMTs.

M41 is equipped with a motorized xyz-stage and a definite focus (hardware autofocus device). The system is fully programmable and therefore able to run multidimensional experiments including any combination of the following: multiple positions, multiple wavelengths, z-Stacks, time-lapse. In addition the M41 system features Airyscan II - a hexagonal GaAsP detector.

This device enables improvement of the resolving power in XYZ by a factor of 1.7. The fast mode of the AiryScan called AiryScan MPLX allows 4-8x faster acquisition with up to 1.5x improvement of the optical resolving power and up to 4x increase of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to 1AU confocal mode.

Furthermore it´s also equipped with a laser ablation device, UGA42-Caliburn from Rapp OptoElectronic. Caliburn, a scanner based photomanipulator, uses 355nm high power laser that allows for laser manipulation during image acquisition, e.g., laser ablation, DNA damage. This microscope is controlled with the ZEN Blue software.

M41 is connected to HIVE