Light Microscopy Photo Gallery
| Focus on Microscopy Conference (Genova, Italy '2003) | ||
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| Conference room, Palazzo Ducale |
Palazzo Ducale | |
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| Stelzer Group | Vernazza, Cinque Terre |
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| Group Retreat, Mallorca '2001 | |
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| Group Photo | Conquering Peak (Puig de Massanella) |
| Investigating phagocytosis by Photonic Force Microscopy | |
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| Latex bead phagosomes (LBP) are latex beads that were internalized by macrophages. a) and b) One LBP (white arrow) is in the trapping region of an optical tweezer another LBP (black arrow) is moving freely. Both LBP are inside the cell (in vivo experiment). c) and d) The previously trapped LBP is released. |
Latex bead phagosomes (LBP) are latex beads that were internalized by macrophages. These LPBs were isolated from J774 macrophages. The three pictures show a LBP that is optically trapped and moved to the right in vitro. The sketch illustrates a LBP in vitro in an optical trap. |
| Builting up of Theta Microscope | |
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Confocal theta fluorescence microscopy is based on very simple principles. For comparison, a conventional epi-fluorescence microscope uses the same lens to illuminate the sample and to detect the samples emitted light. The axial as well as the lateral extents of its point spread function (PSF) are, therefore, dominated by the optical properties of the detection system. In general, the axial extent is at least 3-4 times larger than the lateral extent. On the other hand, in a theta setup one lens is used for illumination and another lens is used for detection. The lenses are arranged at an azimuthal angle theta of about 90°. The illumination process will excite volume elements that are not observed by the detection lens and the detection observes volumes that are not illuminated in the excitation process. Only the fluorophores in the common volume contribute to the detected fluorescence signal. The PSF of a confocal theta microscope is isotropic, i.e. identical along all directions. The improvement of the axial resolution for moderate numerical apertures over confocal microscopy will be around a factor of three to four! | |
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Fig. 1 The illumination system with the chamber on the left and three water dipping lenses. The laser light was fed into the system from the right hand side. |
Fig. 2 A side-view of the breadboard with the illumination on the right and the detection on the left. The block in the front right is the piezo motor that is used to move the object through the common focus of the three lenses. The instrument was later replaced by single lens theta designs and the single plane illumination microscopy. |
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chamber is made of Teflon. A small window in the front allowed the user to generate a view with a regular stereo microscope. | |
These three pictures show the confocal theta microscope that was built by Reinhard Pick and Steffen Lindek during 1992-94. The system is fully described in SPIM. It was designed to do confocal theta as well as confocal 4Pi microscopy. The sample is inside a water filled chamber and observed as well as illuminated using water dipping lenses. The front side of the breadboard houses all components that are required for the illumination process. The elements required for the detection of the fluorescence light emitted by the sample are mounted to the backside. | |