Equipment overview

Upright confocal laser scanning microscopy

Leica SP5 and Leica SP8 microscopes

Our two Leica upright confocal laser scanning microscopes are equipped with a large stage area, water dipping lenses and optional high-speed resonant scanner to enable live tissue imaging applications in addition to standard fixed sample imaging. 

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• Click here for the Leica SP5 system specification

• Click here for the Leica SP8 system specification

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The Leica SP8 is ideal when working with challenging fluorophores or more than four channels; it is equipped with hybrid detector technology to help capture weak signals and a white light super continuum laser for complete flexibility in excitation and detection settings. 

Both microscopes are charged at £25/hour for QMUL or external academic users.  

Inverted confocal laser scanning microscopy

Zeiss LSM800 microscope

Our Zeiss LSM800 is a fully motorised inverted microscope with a fast piezo Z-drive ideally suited to live cell imaging, high-resolution fixed sample analyses or capturing detailed tile-scans of tissue sections. 

Full CO2 & temperature control alongside the Zeiss Definite Focus system can accommodate long-term time-lapse experiments. In addition to the basics, you can create complex acquisitions with the flexible Zeiss 'experiment designer', tile and stitch to capture large tissues at high-resolution, carry out FRAP experiments or multi-well plate scans.   

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Click here for the Zeiss LSM800 system specification

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The Zeiss LSM800 is charged at £25/hour or £100/night for QMUL or external academic users.

Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) & FRET applications

Leica SP8 FALCON microscope

Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) captures the decay time of the fluorophore while building a traditional fluorescence image. The lifetime of a fluorophore is sensitive to its local environment and can be used to detect chemical changes or even FRET between interacting proteins. 

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Our Leica SP8 DIVE is equipped with a state-of-the-art Falcon module for fast fluorescence lifetime imaging and intuitive image processing. 

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Click here for the Leica SP8 DIVE system specification

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The Leica SP8 DIVE is charged at £30/hour for QMUL or external academic users. 

Multiphoton & second harmonic imaging microscopies

Leica SP8 DIVE microscope

Multiphoton microscopy enables deeper imaging than confocal techniques and reduced photobleaching by selectively exciting the focal plane alone.

Our state-of-the-art Leica SP8 DIVE microscope can function as a confocal or multiphoton. For the latter it includes a tunable 680-1300 nm IR laser plus a fixed 1045 nm laser and four detectors (two highly sensitive hybrid detectors and two PMTs). Our long working-distance objective lenses allow a deep imaging range and the system is built to handle live tissue imaging too. 

Click here for the Leica SP8 DIVE system specification

The Leica SP8 DIVE is charged at £30/hour for QMUL or external academic users.  

Brightfield, phase contrast & epifluorescence microscopy

Olympus iX81 widefield microscope

Widefield microscopy is the simplest light microscopy modality, and remains a powerful tool for its high acquisition speeds. 

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Our inverted Olympus iX81 offers the latest CellSens software for flexible experimental design and full CO2 and incubation control for lengthy time lapse experiments. The system can be run in brightfield/phase control (monochrome or colour) or blue/green/red fluorescence. As a fully motorised system, it is well suited to multi-well time-lapse experiments and capturing large tile scans of thin tissue sections or cell monolayers. 

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Click here for the Olympus iX81 system specification

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The Olympus iX81 is charged at £5/hour for QMUL or external academic users.