Laser workstation addresses the limitations of existing microdissection systems in maintaining sterility and in restrictions on sample thickness
Laser microdissection systems that enable users to isolate cells and small areas of tissue have become routine over the last five years.
However, their open architecture makes it difficult to maintain sterility, most are limited to a sample thickness of between 20µm and 40µm and all are affected by moisture, limiting their use for the manipulation of live cells and tissue.
The Clonis laser workstation addresses each of these limitations and is unique in its ability to maintain a sterile environment while successfully processing viable tissue sections of up to 200µm and isolating living cells within culture media.
Equally capable of cutting fixed tissue slices, its combination of features brings distinct advantages to many application areas such as cell biology, neurobiology, pathology, proteomics and genomics research.
The key to the technological leadership of the Clonis system is a support membrane that contains an IR absorbing layer. Cells or tissue sections are either grown or placed on the membrane and an infra-red (IR) laser beam focused onto the IR absorbing layer of the support.
This causes a localised cut in the membrane and any cells or tissue mounted on it.
Because Clonis does not interact with the sample directly it is unaffected by the moisture content of the specimen.
Importantly, all processing may be performed within a sterile petri dish, significantly reducing the risk of contamination.
