Carl Zeiss says its newly-launched LSM 510 Meta high performance laser scanning microscope opens doors to new worlds with its completely new detection technology
The LSM 510 Meta high performance laser scanning microscope from Carl Zeiss defines a new standard in fluorescence microscopy.
A completely new detection technology overcomes the limits of existing detection methods.
The new system allows many more fluorescent markers to be used simultaneously and their fluorescent emissions to be characterised despite spectral overlaps.
The LSM 510 Meta thus specifically addresses the growing need of users in biomedical research to discover the complex relations and interactions between cellular structures and components and to trace them in living cells or tissues.
This milestone development is based on a confocal detection technique combining innovative detector technology with intelligent analytical methods.
By splitting the fluorescent light and projection onto a multi-channel detector, the LSM 510 Meta delivers the spectral distribution of the fluorescence signals as a parameter of every pixel in the object under investigation.
In a second step, this information can be used for the digital separation of the fluorescence emissions in a multifluorescence experiment.
All functions needed for this are provided by the user-friendly LSM 510 Meta software.
Georg Weiss, senior product manager at Carl Zeiss's Department of Advanced Imaging Microscopy, said "For the first time, our customers have vast freedom to choose the number and kinds of fluorescent dyes. They are furnished with a new quality of fluorescence microscopy, enabling completely new approaches and experiments in all disciplines of biomedical research.
It is no longer a problem for fluorochromes with widely overlapping emission characteristics such as GFP and YFP to be used simultaneously and clearly separated." The LSM 510 META features the functions and unique characteristics pioneered in the familiar LSM 510 model, such as the multiple pinhole concept and the flexible scanning strategies, while offering extended performance capabilities. thanks to free selection of the spectral range sensed by the Meta detector, and new, additional scanning modes called step scan and spot scan.
The new detection method can be combined with the proven detector technology of the LSM 510, which is another major benefit in, for example, colocalisation studies.
The sensitivity of the overall system has been distinctly improved again.
This is advantageous for studies on faintly labeled as well as delicate living specimens, and it increases the speed of data acquisition. As an integrated system solution, the LSM 510 Meta is flexible to accommodate new scanning and analysis techniques, such as multiphoton microscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and fluorescence lifetime imaging.
The new Meta detector module can readily be retrofitted to LSM 510 units already installed. This opens doors to new worlds for all LSM users.
