Carl Zeiss has introduced Shuttle and Find, an integrated hardware/software interface that connects light and scanning electron microscopes for correlative microscopy in the life sciences.
This interface for correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) enables users to recall regions of interest in fixed specimens in an electron microscope that were previously identified in a light microscope, and vice versa.
The entire process takes a few seconds and is said to allow for rapid and precise overlay of light and electron microscope images, high-resolution magnification of the details, and the merger of functional and structural information.
The key elements of Shuttle and Find for CLEM are, respectively, a transferable specimen holder that enables smooth specimen transfer between the light and electron microscopes (shuttle) and a software module that controls all the functions of light and electron microscopes needed to identify and recall the defined region of interest (find).
In the life sciences, the relationship between structure and function is increasingly becoming a focal point of interest.
Correlative examinations that combine fluorescence microscope images and scanning electron microscope images of the same region open up new and fascinating possibilities.
Shuttle and Find eliminates the time-consuming search for identical regions in the light and electron microscopes.
Correlative microscopy now really works even if there are still some issues regarding specimen preparation.
Shuttle and Find connects all light microscopes from Carl Zeiss that can be equipped with a motorised stage (Stereo Discovery, Axio Scope, Axio Imager, Axio Examiner and also the Axio Observer inverted microscope) with all Zeiss scanning electron microscopes of the types Evo, Sigma, Supra, Ultra and Merlin, as well as with the Crossbeam (FIB-SEM) system Auriga.
