60 Brilliant Gel Visualisation with Visi-Blue Technology
UVP, LLC announces enhanced visualisation and imaging capabilities with new Visi-Blue™ technology. Visi-Blue transillumination is recommended for viewing a wide range of fluorescent stained gels which emit light at 460-470nm, including GelGreen™, SYBR®
Green, SYBR Gold, SYBR Safe, GelStar® , SYPRO® Ruby, SYPRO Orange and other fluorescein stains. Visi-Blue technology, including Transilluminators and
Converter Plates, does not produce UV light and therefore eliminates UV exposure and minimises damage to samples. Furthermore, Visi-Blue technology is UV-safe, allowing researchers to perform experiments without concern about harmful UV effects.
The Visi-Blue instruments' specially designed filter glass and lighting combination enable bright gel illumination and excitation. Visi-Blue light reduces background noise and increases image signal, creating a higher image contrast for enhanced visualisation and analysis. An amber cover, included with Visi-Blue Transilluminators and optional on Converter Plates, absorbs the blue excitation and provides a clear view of the stained gel's brilliant fluorescence. When viewing the fluorescent gel through the amber cover, researchers can easily see the critical aspects of the sample, allowing for optimal band cutting. For researchers that currently use a UV transilluminator, the Visi-Blue Converter Plate converts UV to a safe 460-470nm excitation wavelength. The Visi-Blue instruments are available in a variety of filter sizes to accommodate gels ranging from 21x26cm to 20x40cm.
For researchers photographing gels using Visi-Blue instruments with a UVP gel imaging system, a UVP-proprietary and unique camera filter is provided with all Visi-Blue equipment. Captured gels clearly display the sensitivity and high image contrast that Visi-Blue instruments provide.
According to Mike Capps, UVP’s Marketing Product Manager: “Visi-Blue technology allows lab researchers to use a wide variety of newer and safer stains for fluorescence imaging. These stains, described above, are much safer than Ethidium Bromide, which is both a known carcinogen and mutagen. By eliminating EtBr from the lab setting, user safety is increased, hazardous material control costs are significantly decreased, and both mutagenic and UV damage to samples are virtually eliminated. Many of today’s advanced laboratories have begun using this new fluorescence technology, and UVP is proud to offer an innovative and flexible array of solutions to meet these demands.”
UVP's Visi-Blue technology supplies a UV safe method for visualisation and capture of a wide range of fluorescent stains Circle no. 218
MICROSCOPY & MICROTECHNIQUES
AFM System for the Characterisation of Polymeric And Biological Materials
JPK Instruments is pleased to report on the research work from the Chemical Physics group of Professor Robert Magerle of the Chemnitz University of Technology. The Chemical Physics Group is part of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. The main research topic is the study of the structure and properties of polymeric materials. Within this, Professor Magerle's goals are to learn about structure, structure-formation processes and properties of both polymeric and biological materials (bone and other collagen based materials) on the nanometer scale. One general lines of research is imaging structure formation processes in these materials in their native state, where the materials are soft or even fluid.
The discovery of new phenomena on the nanometer scale is vital for progress in research and technology. The use of atomic force microscopy, AFM, provides unique opportunities for the study of soft materials including polymers, polymer melts and solutions. It is also well suited for the study of biological materials. For this purpose, Professor Magerle's group developed a microtensile testing setup that allows imaging with AFM local deformation processes in thin polymer films. With this new setup the group discovered locally auxetic behaviour in a thin film of elastomeric polypropylene. This unusual property, which causes the material to expand when it is stretched, appears to be an intrinsic property of certain semi- crystalline polymers.
Speaking on this, Professor Magerle said: "We have chosen the NanoWizard®
tip. JPK has provided us with a custom-built base-plate with an extra cut-out in the centre so we could mount our microtensile testing setup. Another aspect I like about the NanoWizard® design with a tripod. It is very stable with very little thermal drift. Furthermore, the NanoWizard® can be combined with an optical microscope which we intend to use in future projects".
Having used a variety of different types of AFM in his earlier work, Professor Magerle saw many advantages in moving to the JPK NanoWizard® AFM since it is a tip-scanning system and allows us to place our home-built microtensile testing setup precisely below the AFM is its solid mechanical
AFM. Circle no. 219
Crystal Clear Imaging for Optimum Brightness
Nikon has launched the new CFI Plan Apochromat series of objectives, featuring its pioneering ultra-low refractive index Nano Crystal Coat technology. This technology provides unrivalled chromatic aberration and remarkably high transmission values throughout a broad range of wavelengths. Offering bright, sharp, high contrast images, the newly developed CFI Plan Apochromat series objectives are capable of visualising the minute structure and dynamics in living cells or organisms, supporting advanced bioscience applications.
Originating from its semi-conductor manufacturing technology, and used in the manufacture of professional SLR lenses, Nikon's Nano Crystal Coat is an anti-reflective coating that assimilates ultra-fine crystallised particles, the size of a nanometre. Arranging the particles in a spongy coarse structure, with uniform spaces between them, enables lower refractive indices. These crystallised particles eliminate reflections inside the lens throughout the spectrum of visible light waves (380 - 780nm) far exceeding the limits of conventional anti-reflective coating systems. The Nano Crystal Coat eliminates the ghost effects caused by red light and effectively reduces the flare caused by light entering the lens diagonally.
These high-resolution lenses are ideal for multi-colour fluorescence live-cell imaging, particularly for fluorescent dyes with longer wavelengths that are less phototoxic to living specimens. By incorporating the Nano Crystal Coat, the transmission rate of a lens is dramatically increased throughout the entire visible range from UV to near IR of 750nm and over, thus minimising the excitation light to reduce the damage to live cells from the effects of photobleaching and enabling long term imaging. Moreover, with the world’s highest level of chromatic aberration correction, over a wide wavelength range from 435 - 850nm, superb quality images are captured during multiwavelength imaging. Image flatness is also ensured across the entire field of view for all objectives from low to high magnifications.
Unprecedented high resolution with a high numerical aperture (NA) can be achieved at any magnification. The CFI Plan Apochromat 100x oil objective, for example, has an incredibly high NA of 1.45.
Conventional objectives that have a bulky lens top make it difficult to search for and confirm the observation point; there is also a risk that part of the lens could touch the specimen. The CFI Plan Apochromat series objectives now offer a more acute top lens design, providing added clearance making them less likely to interfere with the research and sample.
Circle no. 220
New Software Puts Particles In a Different Light
Malvern Instruments has released a new version of software for the company’s Morphologi G3 particle characterisation system. This fully automated image analysis-based system delivers particle size and shape information for wet and dry samples, and for the analysis of foreign particulate matter collected on filters. Among the new applications in the version 7.40 software are facilities for user-defined light settings and automated dark-field measurements, further extending the range of applications for which the Morphologi G3 can be used. A new reanalyse function enables the application of filters, classes and the rebinning of data to multiple records, for improved productivity and workflow.
With the new software, Morphologi G3 users can now more closely define their own light settings in the standard operating procedures (SOP), allowing for darkfield and polariser measurements. The Version 7.40 software also introduces a polygonal selection tool for tighter definition of size and shape classes, and a circular area selection tool for more accurate analysis of particulates on filters.
The Morphologi G3 automated particle characterisation system provides statistically significant, high-quality image data for thousands of particles in one measurement.
Circle no. 221
INTERNATIONAL LABMATE - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 - MICROSCOPY & MICROTECHNIQUES
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