The confocal microscope, Carl Zeiss LSM 880 Airyscan, consists of an inverted microscope outfitted with six objectives, 2.5x, 5x, 10x, 20x, 40x (1.3 NA Oil) and 63x (1.4 NA Oil), six lasers, 405 (blue), 458 (blue), 488 (cyan), 514 (green), 561 (green) and 633 nm (red), three fluorescence emission detectors and one transmission detector. One fluorescence detector is a gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) detector, which is significantly more sensitive than conventional photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs), making it ideal for low SNR samples. Airyscan mode allows for superresolution imaging, which provides greater resolution in x, y and z. The instrument is also equipped with a PeCon CO₂/humidified incubation system for continuous live prep imaging of up to 96 hrs that supports 35 and 50 mm dishes, plates, multi-well slides and coverslip slides.

The instrument is suitable for three-color co-localization with minimized spectral overlap, overlay of fluorescence onto bright-field images, tiling of images, 3D reconstruction, Fluorescence Recovery After Photo-bleaching (FRAP), Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) and Reflection Mode for non-translucent samples. Further, the instrument supports microfluorometic measurements including programmed time-lapse imaging, ratio-metric imaging of pH and Ca²⁺ sensitive dyes, and line scans for fast events such as Ca²⁺ sparks.

The Carl Zeiss LSM 880 is outfitted with a temperature-controlled 8-line superfusion setup for live-tissue microfluorometry including pH and Ca²⁺ measurements in conjunction with fast solution changes at 37 C.

Access:

Projects are initiated by a meeting of the user, principal investigator and Core Manager.

Contact Mr Joel Sanneman.
The Core provides individual training.
Trained users coordinate instrument use via the Scheduler.