Andor's Ixon 897 EMCCD cameras have been used in the development of a structured illumination microscopy approach that delivers sub-diffraction resolution at high speed.
The instrument has been developed by a team from the University of San Francisco (UCSF), led by Prof John Sedat, Assistant Prof Mats Gustafsson, and Dr David Agard, and is based on the employment of diffracted laser light to create a pattern of multiple interfering illumination beams.
Capture of images over several orientation of the beams incident on the sample, followed by intensive computational treatment, results in a final image with spatial resolution that is at least twice as fine as the 200-300nm best case resolution of classical microscopy.
Electron microscopy cannot be performed on living cells, and furthermore, is not compatible with use of fluorescent tags for greater specificity.
The structured illumination set-up from UCSF has been successfully demonstrated on challenging sub-nuclear structural investigations and this work was published in the 6 June 2008 issue of 'Science'.
Sedat said: 'Using a parallel array of Andor's Ixon 897 EMCCD cameras as detectors, we have been able to develop this instrument with enhanced sensitivity and speed, critical to realise the implementation of the technique for high resolution imaging of challenging live specimens within a reasonable measurement period.' Dr Colin Coates, market development manager at Andor, added: 'This is a highly significant advance since much sub-cellular detail is hidden by the classical diffraction limit of light microscopy.'
