News
10.05.2022New fluorescence microscope at the CCiTUB
The Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona have acquired a new fluorescence microscope, the Leica Thunder for cell cultivations and 3D tests (tissues, organoids, embryos, etc.). This microscope has been installed in the Advanced Optical Microscopy laboratory of the Diagonal Campus and will allow to expand and improve the service offered until now by the Leica DMIRE2 fluorescence microscope.
Features of the new equipment
The Leica Thunder system is fully automated and allows extremely fast position control of the turntable, spotlight and fluorescent lighting. This equipment also improves considerably in sensitivity as it incorporates an sCMOS camera (Leica K5) with a quantum efficiency of over 80%. In addition, this camera offers a very large field of view (18mm diagonally) that allows you to capture mosaics of images of whole fabric cuts in seconds. On the other hand, as a source of fluorescent lighting, this microscope has an 8-line LED system that covers the vast majority of existing fluorochromes in the visible range (395-730nm). Finally, it is worth noting the computer modules for background cleaning and deconvolution that the Thunder system incorporates. These algorithms make it possible to process images by reassigning light out of focus to the corresponding plane and leaving them similar to those obtained by confocal microscopy.
The Thunder system is a sensitive and very fast fluorescence microscope that allows to obtain images without the background signal or out-of-focus light typical of fluorescence microscopy. It is therefore a very good complement to confocal microscopy which is also available in our Advanced Optical Microscopy laboratories (Campus Diagonal, Clínic and Bellvitge).
Applications
• Observation of whole tissue / embryo cuts (in mosaics) with up to 4 different fluorescent markings
• Counting / analysis of cell markings of large regions (coverslips)
• Screening of markings on multi-well plates
CCiTUB collaborates with UB faculties and departments
The acquisition of this microscope has been carried out through the "Grants for the renovation of obsolete scientific and technological research equipment of the University of Barcelona" and with the collaboration of the Genetics section of the department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and also of the faculty of Biology.
More information of the equipment:[+].