Microscopes at LCI
The Live Cell Imaging Core Facility has grown to include 8 high-end microscopes. Our microscopes allow researchers to perform conventional and high throughput confocal and widefield microscopy, fast confocal microscopy (resonance scanner and spinning disk), Fluorescence Life Time Imaging (FLIM), multiphoton microscopy, spectral imaging, super resolution microscopy (TIRF and STORM) and light sheet microscopy.
- 1 Zeiss single and multiphoton confocal (Zeus)
- 2 Nikon single point confocals (Dragon, Pegasus) with fast resonant scanners, and spectral detectors.
- 3 Nikon multipoint confocals (spinning disk) (Victor, Orion and Tweety)
- 5 Nikon widefield (Victor, Orion, Tweety, Pegasus, Minerva)
- 2 Nikon TIRF (Pegasus, Victor)
- 1 Nikon STORM super resolution (Pegasus)
- 1 Nikon DeepSIM super resolution (Orion)
- 1 M-Squared Light Sheet (Aurora)
- Nikon JOBS High content screening module (Dragon, Tweety, Orion, Pegasus, Victor)
- 1 Primo (Alveole) micropatterning and micromanufacturing device (Tweety)
- 1 MMI laser capture microdissection and cell picking system (Minerva)
- 1 MMI Slide scanner with a colour camera (Minerva)
- Imaris, NIS-Element, Zen, Fiji, Cell Profiler, Deconvolution, ImSpector, MatLab, Python, CTFire, Omero
Most of our microscopes have a large incubator for long term live cell imaging.
Tweety

This system can be used as
- Spinning disk CREST v3
- Ultra fast widefield with large field of view
- Micropatterning (printing proteins on a dish) and micromanufacturing (making microwells)
Equipment specifications
- Nikon
- Inverted
- Full size incubator for life cell imaging
- Fully motorized including Z piezo 100 um
- High content screening JOBS module
- 2 very sensitive cameras from Photometrics: Prime 95B sCMOS, 95% QE, 11um pixels for best sensitivity, 1608x1608 pixels and Kinetix sCMOS, >95% QE, 6.5 um for best resolution, 2720x2720 pixels
- Alvéole Primo micropatterning and micromanufacturing device
Filters for Widefield and Spinning disk side
- Lasers: 405, 446, 477, 520, 546, 638, 749 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 441/30; 511/26; 593/37; 684/34; 817/66 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 484/22; 561/30
- Dichroic mirror: 562LP
- Pentaband: 441/30; 511/26; 593/37; 684/34; 817/66 (nm)
- Dual band: 484/20; 561/30 (nm)
- Single bands: 438/24; 485/20; 511/20; 560/25; 595/31; 685/40; 561LP (nm); 819/44nm
For more information on
Pegasus

This system can be used as
- Single point scanning confocal
- Resonant scanner for fast imaging
- Widefield
- TIRF
- STORM super resolution
Equipment specifications
- Nikon
- Inverted
- Full size incubator for life cell imaging
- Fully motorized including Z piezo 100 um
- High content screening JOBS module
- 2x GaAsP detectors (green and red)
- 32-channel spectral detector
- Andor EM-CCD camera, 60 fps at 512x512 pixels. Pixel size 16 um. QE 95%
Filters on the widefield side
- Excitation filters: 387/11; 472/30; 562/40; 620/60 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 409LP; 495LP; 593LP; 660LP (nm)
- Emission filters: 447/60; 520/35; 624/40; 700/75 (nm)
Filters, lasers and dichroic mirrors for the confocal
- Lasers: 405 (diode), 457/488/514 (Argon Ion) 561 (diode); 647 (diode) (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 405/488 ; 405/488/561; 405/488/561/640; 405-457/514 ; 457/514/561; BS20/80 (nm)
- Emission filters: 450/50; 482/35; 525/50; 540/30; 595/50; 700/75 (nm)
Filters, lasers and dichroic mirrors
- Lasers: 405 (diode), 457/488/514 (Argon Ion) 561 (diode); 640 (diode) (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 405/488; 405/488/561; 405/488/561/640; 405-457/514; 457/514/561; BS20/80 (nm)
- Emission filters: 450/50;482/35; 525/50; 540/30; 595/50; 700/75 (nm)
Filter cubes for STORM
- STORM cube: 405; 488; 561; 647, (5 nm width). Emission filter: 705/70 nm.
Filter cubes for TIRF
- Dual TIRF: Excitation filters: 488/561 (5 nm width); DM: 507/24; 565LP (emission) (nm); Emission filters: 522/45; 570LP (nm)
- Quad TIRF: Excitation filters; 405; 488; 561; 647, (5 nm width); DM: 450/60; 525/60; 597/55; 607/55: 670LP (emission); Emission Filters: 451/29; 525/50; 607/18; 675LP (nm)
For more information on
Dragon

This system can be used as
- Single point scanning confocal
- Resonant scanner for fast imaging with large field of view (1024x1024 pixels)
- Wide field with colour and monochrome imaging
Equipment specifications
- Nikon
- Inverted
- Full size incubator for life cell imaging
- Fully motorized
- High content screening JOBS module
- 2x GaAsP detectors (green and red)
- 32-channel spectral detector
- Digital Sight 10 CMOS colour camera from Nikon, 25 mm FOV, 5.97 pixel size, for best resolution 6000 x 3984 pixels
Filters, lasers and dichroic mirrors
- Lasers: 405 (diode), 457/488/514 (Argon Ion) 561 (diode); 640 (diode) (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 405/488; 405/488/561; 405/488/561/640; 405-457/514; 457/514/561; BS20/80 (nm)
- Emission filters: 450/50; 482/35; 525/50; 540/30; 595/50; 700/75 (nm)
For more information on
Orion

This system can be used as
- Spinning disk CREST v3
- Ultra fast widefield with large field of view
- Super resolution (DeepSIM) ( approximately 100nm resolution in xy and approximately 300nm resolution in z (60x or100x oil objective); 1024x1024 FOV
Equipment specifications
- Nikon
- Inverted
- Fully motorized including Z piezo 100 um
- High content screening JOBS module
- Camera from Photometrics, Kinetix sCMOS, >95% QE, 6.5 um for best resolution, 2720x2720 pixels
Filters, lasers and dichroic mirrors
- Lasers: 405, 440, 475, 514, 545, 640, 748 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 441/30; 511/26; 592/37; 684/34; 817/66 (nm)
- Excitation filters: 391/44; 477/12; 549/16; 639/17; 740/29
- Emission filters: 440/40; 480/40; 525/50; 550/30; 595/50; 685/34; 750 LP (nm)
For more information on
Victor

This system can be used as
- Spinning disk confocal
- Ultra fast widefield
- TIRF
Equipment specifications
- Nikon
- Inverted
- Full size incubator for life cell imaging
- Fully motorized including Z piezo 250 um
- High content screening JOBS module
- Widefield: Andor camera Zyla 4.2+. 100 fps at 2048x2048 pixels. Pixel size 6.45 um. QE 82%
- External filter wheel and SpectraX LED for fast imaging
- Spinning disk: Kinetix sCMOS, >95% QE, 6.5 um for best resolution, 1193x1193 pixels
- Spinning disk Yokagawa CSU-X1, 10,000 rpm
- 1.2x built-in extra magnification lens in the spinning disk
Filters on the spinning disk confocal side
- Lasers: 405, 488; 561; 640 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 431/44; 519/52; 599/55; 652LP (emission) (nm)
- Emission filters: 447/60; 525/30 ; 607/36; 685/40; Dual band: 512/30; 630/100; Triple band: 525 600 690 (nm)
Filters on the widefield side
- Excitation filters: 395/25, 440/20; 475/28; 510/25; 550/15; 575/25; 631/28 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors WF: 452/55; 529/52; 604/48; 675LP (emission) (nm)
- Dichroic mirror CFP/YFP FRET: 458LP (emission) (nm)
- Emission filters: 447/60; 483/32 ; 500LP; 525/30; 542/27; 572/15; 607/36; 624/40; 630/92; 685/40 (nm)
Filters on the TIRF side
- Dual TIRF: Excitation filters: 488/561 (5 nm width); DM: 520/50; 565LP (emission) (nm); Emission filters: 522/45; 570LP (nm)
- Quad TIRF: Excitation filters; 405; 488; 561; 647, 5 nm width; DM: 450/60; 525/60; 597/55; 607/55: 670LP (emission); Emission Filters: 451/29; 525/50; 607/18; 675LP (nm)
For more information on
Zeus

This system can be used as
- Single point scanning confocal
- Multiphoton point scanning confocal
Equipment specifications
- Zeiss LSM710-NLO
- Upright
- Full size incubator for life cell imaging
- Fully motorized
- 34-channel spectral detector
- GaAsP detector
Lasers
- 405 (diode); 457/488/514 Argon; 561 (diode); 633 (diode)
- 4 NDDs (2 trans and 2 epi) (specifications, in the table below)
For more information on
Fluorophore | Dichroic mirror | Emission | |
---|---|---|---|
Blue | Mirror | SP 485 | |
Green | LP 490 | BP 500-550 | used in combination with the blue filter cube |
Green mirror | mirror | BP 500-550 | used in combination with the red filter cube |
Red | LP 555 | BP 565-610 |
Aurora

This system can be used as
- Light sheet microscope
Equipment specifications
- M Squared Lasers
- Upright
- Full size incubator for life cell imaging
- Fully motorized including xy scanning size of a multiwell plate
- Z fast beam scanning 900 um, additional stage scanning 1 cm
- No shadowing effect thanks to the self-healing Airy beam
- < 1um xy and z resolution with a field of view of 870x870 um
- Tiling/stitching, multiple sample or regions
- Dedicated deconvolution software running on GPU power
- 2 Hamamatsu Orca Flash cameras 4 V.3 100 fps at 2048x2048 pixels. Pixel size 6.45 um. QE 82%
- Objective: Navitar multi-immersion: 15.3x – 17.9x; NA 0.37-0.43.
- Refraction index: 1.33-1.56 without changing objectives
- All immersion media can be used for imaging
- Working distance 12mm
How to calculate the objective NA and magnification
- NA=0.276xRI
- Mag=11.494xRI
- WD = constant for all RI
Lasers (mW)
- 405nm(60 mW); 457nm(100 mW); 488nm(100 mW); 515nm(100 mW); 561nm(80 mW); 642nm(140 mW); 685nm(50 mW)
Filters
- 445/58; 480/30; 525/50; 535/30; 590LP; 605/52; 665LP; 667/30; 700LP (nm)
- DM: 510 LP (CFP-YFP) and 560 LP
A powerful server is available for fast transfer/storage/deconvolution/stitching/analysis.
Minerva

This system can be used as
- Widefield
- Slide scanner
- Laser microdissection for RNA and protein analysis of part of a tissue
- Cell picker and sorter
Equipment specifications
- Nikon
- Inverted
- Fully motorized
- High content screening JOBS module
- MMI VCXU23c colour camera (1920 x 1200 pixels, 5.86 μm x 5.86 μm)
- MMI CellCut and CellEctor
Filters for widefield
- Excitation filters: 365/10; 470/40; 544/25; 628/40 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 400LP; 495LP; 565LP; 660LP (nm)
- Emission filters: 460/50; 515/30; 605/70; 692/40 (nm)
For more information on
Nikon AXR with NSPARC (single point confocal)
This system can be used as
- Single point confocal
- 25 mm FOV resonant scanner and 25 mm FOV galvano scanner
Equipment specifications
- Nikon, Ti2
- Inverted
- Fully motorized including Z piezo 100 um
- 2 low noise GaAsP and 2 Multi-alkali PMT detectors
- Nikon Spatial Array Confocal (NSPARC) ultra-low noise detector
- Extremely highspeed imaging (up to 720 fps at 2048 x 16 pixels)
- Spectral detector in up to 66 emission channels for unmixing
- High content screening JOBS module
- Full size incubator for life cell imaging
Filters, laser and dichroic mirrors on the confocal side
- Lasers: 405, 488, 561, 640 (nm)
- Dichroic mirrors: 405/488/561/640; BS20/80 (nm)
- Emission filters: fixed width: 429-474 and 663-728 and 2 tunable filters