The screws of the Tokai hit chamber holder did not tighten well anymore. Focus shifts occurred when accurate imaging was required on live cells. It was already tedious to unscrew and rescrew the adapters for the different chambers and this has only become more cumbersome, unfortunately. We need to fasten the new screws and tighten…

The new 40x objective (HC PL APO CS2 NA1.3, oil immersion) has been equipped with the correct condenser prisms some time ago, but it was not mentioned here. So the DIC and fluorescence is fully upgraded on the machine. Please realize the greater sensitivity of the new objective. Intensity measurements acquired before June with the 40x…

A Leica service engineer has visited us and repaired the DIC slider bug and updated driver software. Keep us posted when bugs appear.

We experience a problem with the DIC slider in the SPE-II microscope. Leica has been contacted and will be repairing it in the coming days.

Nikon has reinstalled the wiring for the Lumencor SpectraX, and triggering via NIS elements acquisition software is now possible. It allows the 6 defined LEDs to be individualy tweaked for intensity in a single acquisition procedure. Fast, accurate and sensitive imaging is possible in wide field modus using the EM-CCD camera.

The wide field LED illumination source (SPECTRA X from lumencor) has been installed on the STORM system. It allows flexible fast multicolor imaging without filter switching in the wide field mode (for now separately defined in the ND acquisition). In the coming weeks triggering via the EM-CCD camera will be possible to allow multicolor imaging even…

We have setup the SPE2 confocal to room O.101 as was announced before. The system is functional again and the PC software has been updated. We will evaluate whether it has solved the many problems we face lately with the performance of the system.

This week we will move the Leica SPE2 to labspace O.101 to prepare for the maintenance on the aircos next week. We will try to minimize inconvenience for users by clustering the restructuring of CCI spaces for the new scopes that will arrive. The cryostate has been moved to the lab O.102. Watch this space…

We now have a workstation that runs Imaris 8 (full licence) at the CCI. Experienced users are welcome to use it, it can be booked in the on-line reservation system. We will be trained by Imaris application specialists in the coming months to offer best support for this excellent image analysis package.

Due to the renewal of  equipment, we will reoganize the CCI drastically. First, the space that will host the multiphoton system is being prepared. This is a collaboration with the WKZ, see earlier posts about this. This system will be placed in room O122. The co-ordinator of work on this machine will initially be Nienke Vrisekoop….