ANALYTICAL AND LABORATORY EQUIPMENT 13
Optimised imaging systems for high-speed analysis
Imaging technologies are now even more optimised to meet the laboratory’s main requirements: ease of use and swift analysis of results, Sean Ottewell reports.
Les technologies d’imagerie sont désormais encore plus optimisées en vue de répondre aux premières exigences des laboratoires : facilité d’utilisation et analyse rapide des résultats, un reportage de Sean Ottewell.
Bildgebungstechnologien sind ausgeklügelter als je zuvor, damit die wichtigsten Anforderungen der Labors ñ Benutzerfreundlichkeit und rasche Ergebnisanalyse ñ erfüllt werden können. Sean Ottewell berichtet.
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nnovative imaging technology supplied by Preston-based Image Solutions UK (Imsol) is helping scientists at the University of Sussex’s Centre for Genome Damage and Stability (CGDS) to get a better understanding of how mistakes made during the process of cell division can lead to disorders and diseases within humans.
Te CGDS houses 16 research groups, all focused on different aspects of DNA damage responses and genome instability. One of the groups, managed by Wellcome Trust senior fellow Helfrid Hochegger, uses Imsol’s DeltaVision Core and Personal DV imaging systems in order to better understand the activities of enzymes known as kinases. Successful cell separation depends on kinase activity and as a result they are one of the most studied of all enzyme families.
“My lab is very focused on imaging because we are looking at cell cycle division, especially mitosis. We are particularly interested in the
centrosome which organises the dynamics of cell separation.
“Many kinases are involved in this activity and we are trying to understand how they interact by using markers in human and avian tissue culture cells,” says Hochegger.
Living tissue In order to track these markers through the cell, Hochegger and his team have to take 60 images through 300nm-thick slices of living tissue in just 30 seconds. In addition, the images have to be taken with a very short exposure time of just 50mS as any longer would damage the cells that are being studied.
“We film the whole cell and then use deconvolution to reconstruct the image. Tat’s why we need a very sensitive camera and a very stable 3D imaging system. DeltaVision Core and Personal DV are the best solutions because of their control of 3D imaging and ability to optimise it. Tis is the gold standard for this type of work,” he added.
Imsol’s DeltaVision Core is designed to increase a laboratory’s ability to image more probes and samples over longer periods of time than any competitive imaging system, while the Personal DV is an integrated, bench-top solution designed for speed and economy.
Te BioSpectrum imaging system from UVP is configured for use in multiple imaging applications. Combined with the BioLite MultiSpectral light source, it provides a powerful system to excite and illuminate wavelengths for applications including multiplex NIR imaging. Te BioSpectrum system provides not only a full range of wavelengths for excitation, also offers rapid, high resolution image capture through the use of cooled CCD camera and low light lenses. Exposures times are very fast, much faster than laser scanning.
Te new system features: easy-to-use VisionWorks LS software which automates research with templates for consistent, reproducible results; high resolution and low light sensitivity cooled CCD camera and optics allow quick detection of a full range of visible and NIR fluorescent dyes; automated imaging of white light and multiple different fluorescent tags on a single blot; and a combination of up to eight excitation and five emission wavelengths for all spectral ranges in a single experiment.
Right BSC1 cells during cell division imaged on a DeltaVision Imaging System.
Emission filters With the extensive range of excitation and emission filters available, researchers can detect as well as quantify virtually all fluorescent dye from visible to NIR using VisionWorks LS acquisition and analysis software. Te use of NIR and visible fluorescent labels permit multiplexing so that several proteins in a sample can be detected
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