Zeiss Microscopy receives R and D 100 award for second year running with award for technical innovation in conventional microscopy
The annual R and D 100 Awards recognise the excellence and innovation of the 100 most important technical products launched worldwide.
Last year, Carl Zeiss Microscopy was a winner with the LSM 510 Meta laser scanning microscope, and the Microscopy division has repeated this success in 2003 with ApoTome, which allows the fast, high-quality production of optical sections through fluorochromed biological specimens.
ApoTome is a slider module that eliminates the time-consuming and expensive process in conventional fluorescence microscopy of making optical sections of biological specimens.
With reduced costs and a less complex instrument set-up, ApoTome opens up new possibilities for more precise and reliable results for more users, not just those working in special research institutions and large imaging centres.
The quality of micrographs produced is just as high as that from traditional techniques.
This advance is crucial in areas like cell research where the improvement to resolution and contrast in thick specimens is vital.
With these specimens in particular, ApoTome provides image quality in terms of sharpness and contrast never achieved before in conventional fluorescent microscopy.
Optical sections are also a major requirement for reconstructions and ApoTome produces 2D and 3D images free of stray light with excellent signal-to-noise ratio.
"This award confirms the innovation strategy at Carl Zeiss," says Aubrey Lambert, marketing manager for Carl Zeiss UK. "ApoTome's success, following hard on the heels of the LSM 510 Meta laser scanning microscope in 2002, shows that our commitment to the development of innovative systems is worthwhile.
We are well on the way to consolidating and extending our leading position on the world market".
The imaging principle behind ApoTome is known as 'grid projection' or 'structured illumination'.
A grid of stripes is projected onto the focal plane of the objective and shifted laterally in three defined steps relative to the sample.
A digital image is recorded in each grid position and the three 'raw' images are combined by on-line computation into an optical section through the original sample with improved contrast and better resolution in axial direction.
