EQUIPMENT
– CELLULAr IMAGING

Confocal microscope LSM 780

The confocal microscope allows the realization of optical sections allowing resolved 3D reconstructions of samples. Based on the principle of scanning the focal plane with a laser spot and collecting the signal emitted through a pinhole conjugated to this beam, any fluorescent signal not originating from the observed plane will be eliminated. A sharp image of one plane is obtained and by moving the objective, the other planes necessary for a complete reconstruction of the sample are acquired.

The microscope is an LSM 780 (ZEISS) on an AxioObserver Z1 motorised inverted microscope.

 Four laser excitation sources are available:

• • Diode 405nm
  • Laser Argon : 458, 488 et 514nm
  • DPSS : 561nm
  • HeNe : 633nm

 The objectives present are :

• • Plan-Apochromat   10x / 0,3
  • Plan-Apochromat   20x / 0,8 DIC III
  • Plan-Apochromat   63x / 1,4 Oil DIC III

In addition, the instrument has full environmental control of temperature and CO2 as well as a motorised stage for multi-dimensional acquisition on live cells.

The system has a spectral detection that allows the simultaneous imaging of up to 8 components on a single sample. This allows the separation of fluorochromes with overlapping excitation and emission spectra, but also the treatment of autofluorescence problems. An FCS (Fluorescence Correlation Spectrometry) software module completes the possibilities of performing F-Techniques (FRET, FRAP, …) for the study of dynamic phenomena and molecular interactions.