42 Microscopy as Designed by you
Olympus has announced the release of the BX63 microscope system, the top-of-the-range model of the powerful BX3 portfolio. BX3 microscope systems are built by your needs, with a modular, customisable design that makes them flexible enough to be adjusted to different experimental requirements, while providing inherent future-proof adaptability. Users can select their preferred components, including optical elements, camera, software suite, and control solutions. The BX63 also incorporates several cutting-edge, fully motorised features including a programmable touch screen and a detachable remote control. These characteristics maximise accuracy and stability, as well as allowing the BX63 to be modified in order to suit the workflow of each individual user. This ethos extends through to the accompanying cellSens software, which can be personalised depending on user preferences to maximise efficiency and ease-of-use.
The BX63 is fully motorised and can be controlled using the touch screen control surface, the remote control unit or the cellSens software via the mouse. This provides intuitive and easy operation using control units that are fully detachable, thereby providing the most ergonomic solution possible, which can be fully tailored to meet the needs of each individual user. The units themselves provide the widest range of adjustment options, including the ability to change objective lens, mirror unit and observation method, as well as the power to navigate and focus the sample. Among the mechanised features of the BX63 is a unique focusing mechanism driven by changes in the height of the nosepiece, rather than the height of the stage. This approach allows the stage to be fixed into position and makes the entire system more stable and precise. The stage itself is also motorised, facilitating precise X,Y movements using ultrasonic Piezo technology to provide silent, smooth and highly-precise operation. Accurate position encoders attached to the stage continuously send XY-coordinates to the cellSens software, maximising the reproducibility of multi-position experiments. The position of the stage can also be manipulated by hand, allowing rapid, gross changes in sample position.
Circle no. 431
MICROSCOPY & MICROTECHNIQUES
State-of-the-Art System for Single Molecule Force Measurements to Nanoindentation Experiments JPK Instruments continues to expand its family of high performance research systems with the announcement of the availability of the NanoWizard®
3
NanoScience AFM system. Building relationships with the SPM community and collaborating with users worldwide has enabled JPK to develop powerful and flexible systems. Designing with upgradeability in mind guarantees a safe investment for users and an international team of experienced scientists and developers takes care of their service and support. The resulting NanoWizard®
3 NanoScience system design provides the highest AFM performance
in liquids and air, integrated with optical microscopy. It provides optimum imaging in air and liquid for single molecules, polymers and nanomaterials. The tip-scanning head equipped with a flexure scanner gives highest flexibility for a large variety of different samples. In particular, large sample size scanning is possible. The expanded flexibility and modularity of design coupled with the widest range of operation modes and accessories from electrochemistry to the tip-assisted optics module makes this the ideal platform for multiple users and applications.
The core of the new system family is HyperDrive™, a SuperResolution AFM imaging technique. With extremely low tip-sample interactions, samples are never damaged. It is available with the NanoWizard®
3 AFM head and the new Vortis™ high bandwidth, low noise control electronics. The system
is extremely stable to drift and has the ability to detect the smallest cantilever deflections enabling some of the most stunning images ever produced in a commercial system. This digital controller has been built with flexible operation for the user in mind. The NanoWizard®
3 is the only AFM system
on the market which is designed for optimal use in liquid and comes with a vapour barrier, encapsulated piezos and a variety of dedicated liquid cells for applications ranging from single molecule experiments to corrosion in an electrochemical environment.
As JPK's CTO, Torsten Jähnke, said: "Everywhere where AFM and optics, AFM in liquid and high quality AFM are needed, JPK is the right partner. We do not do every AFM application but what we do, we do with passion and perfection. NanoWizard® nanoindentation experiments applying JPK's.”
3 is a truly state-of-the-art designed system providing the broadest possible range of experimental options to the user: from single molecule force measurements to Circle no. 432
Electrochemical Strain Microscopy for Energy Storage Research
Asylum Research has announced the new Electrochemical Strain Microscopy (ESM) imaging technique for its Cypher™ and MFP-3D™ AFMs. Developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Asylum Research, ESM is an innovative scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technique capable of probing electrochemical reactivity and ionic flows in solids on the sub-ten-nanometer level. ESM is the first technique that measures ionic currents directly, providing a new tool for mapping electrochemical phenomena on the nanoscale. The capability to probe electrochemical processes and ionic transport in solids is invaluable for a broad range of applications for energy generation and storage ranging from batteries to fuel cells. ESM has the potential to aid in these advances with two major improvements over other conventional technologies: (a) the resolution to probe nanometer-scale volumes and (b) the inherent ability to decouple ionic from electronic currents with (c) imaging capability extended to a broad range of spectroscopy techniques reminiscent of conventional electrochemical tools. Roger Proksch, President of Asylum Research, commented: “Progress in energy storage and conversion will be greatly facilitated by the ability to study batteries and fuel cells at the level of several nanometers. ESM provides functional
imaging of electrochemical phenomena in volumes millions to a billion times smaller than conventional current-based electrochemical techniques. This new technique opens the pathway to understanding energy technology and ionic devices on the level of individual grains and defects, thus bridging macroscopic functionalities and atomistic mechanisms. This in turn will lead to improved energy storage solutions – batteries with extremely high energy densities and long lifetimes and fuel cells with very high energy densities and efficiencies.”
"Traditionally, scanning probe microscopy techniques allowed measurement of electronic currents and short- and long-range forces," added Sergei Kalinin, Senior Research Staff Member in the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL and co-inventor (with Nina Balke and Stephen Jesse) of ESM. "ESM extends this capability to measure ionic currents, and has already been demonstrated for a variety of Li-ion cathode, anode, and electrolyte materials, as well as oxygen electrolytes and mixed electronic-ionic conductors. The ubiquitous presence of concentration-molar volume coupling in electrochemical systems suggests that this technique is in fact universal for solid state ionic imaging – from batteries and solid state to memristive electronics. Stephen Jesse added: “Perhaps even more importantly, the use of band excitation and DART engines allows measurements to be performed on rough surfaces of realistic electrochemical materials, making ESM useful for real materials and devices.”
Circle no. 433 Cell Receptor Recycling Mechanism Discovery Opens up New Class of Apeutic Targets
Professor Manojkumar Puthenveedu of Carnegie Mellon University studies the mechanisms by which membrane trafficking controls and co-ordinates the complex signalling pathways in the brain. Despite the fact that almost all diseases can be traced to a defect in how cells respond to signals, little is known about how signalling pathways are maintained in normal cells and the changes that occur in abnormal conditions. Using the Andor Revolution XD Confocal Microscope for live cell studies, Professor Puthenveedu has led an international team of researchers to elucidate how signalling receptors are recycled to the cell membrane. The discovery of the mechanism by which signalling receptors travel back to the surface of the cell after activation and internalisation opens up a new class of therapeutic targets.
The team used live cell confocal fluorescence microscopy to label and image beta-2 adrenergic receptor (b2AR), the receptor for adrenaline and noradrenaline and one of a group of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) pivotal to the regulation of heart and lung function, mood, cognition and memory, digestion, and the inflammatory response. After internalisation, they found that b2AR was recycled via unique domains on the endosome, which they termed Actin-Stabilized Sequence-dependent Recycling Tubule (ASSERT) domains. Rapid turnover of endosomal actin was confirmed by FRAP (fluorescence recovery after photobleaching). The ASSERT domains trap and slow down the release of receptors to provide a slower pathway compared to the faster bulk recycling pathway and could potentially be targeted by pharmaceutical agents to control diseases resulting from abnormal cell signalling.
“Confocal fluorescence microscopy has been the driver for an explosion in the study of dynamic processes in living cells, but not all systems are created equal. We have created an instrument that optimises sensitivity, acquisition speed and specimen viability,” said Mark Browne, Director of Systems at Andor. “The high optical efficiency of the Revolution XD spinning disk system allows the use of reduced laser power and, therefore, lowers the risk of phototoxicity to the specimen during long term experiments while Andor’s IQ software ensures precise synchronisation of illumination, detection and scanning for unparalleled image quality and acquisition rates.”
Circle no. 434
LAB ASIA - MARCH/APRIL 2011 - MICROSCOPY & MICROTECHNIQUES
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