Zeiss Celldiscoverer 7 high-throughput live-cell screening microscope

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The AMI live-cell high-throughput microscopy can be used by researchers to study the behaviour of living cells in real time and in response to a large number of varying experimental conditions. The AMI live-cell screening microscope has the unique ability to not only provide high-detail, sub-cellular spatial information across time, but also provide visiting researchers with exceptionally large datasets containing information on a full range of experimental conditions. Examples of this include drug concentration dilutions, gene induction titrations, and CRISPR-interference construct differences across a 96-well microtitre plate. The automated imaging means that researchers can capture biological processes in high detail from a very large numbers of cells rather than simply relying on low sample numbers.

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With temperature and carbon dioxide control, the AMI live-cell screening microscope can also accommodate other types of samples (and holders), such as seeds, blood smears, or developing embryos within a dish. The automation to capture multiple areas of interest will provide visiting researchers with large amounts of biological information that can be used to tease out small responses of the sample. 

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Instrument specifications

• Inverted microscope configuration

• Auto focus for time-lapse acquisitions of live samples in aqueous media

• Automatic immersion media control

• Contrast methods:

  • bright-field transmitted light

  • fluorescence

• Temperature-, relative humidity, and CO₂-controlled incubation

• Objectives:​

  • 50× 1.2 NA water-immersion

  • 20× 0.95 NA 

  • 20× 0.7 NA 

• Light source:

  • Halogen lamp for transmitted light

  • LED for fluorescence​

    • 625nm ■

    • 590nm ■

    • 567nm ■

    • 520nm ■

    • 470nm ■

    • 420nm ■

    • 385nm ■

• Emission filters:​

  • Simultaneous quad-band pass

    • ​410-440nm ■

    • 499-529nm ■

    • 567-617nm ■

    • 659-759nm ■

  • Simultaneous tri-band pass

    • 455-489nm ■

    • 543-568nm ■

    • 608-753nm ■

  • ​Simultaneous tri-band pass

    • 410-440nm ■

    • 499-529nm ■

    • 620-765nm ■

• Axiocam 712 monochrome camera

 

Instrument capabilities

• Resolution limit: ~260nm xy; 1800nm z

• Speed limit: down to 5min for a 96-well microtitre plate

• Depth: down to 15μm

• Field of view: dependent on objective

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Instrument uses​

• Live-cell imaging

• Automated stage movement

• Tiling and panorama (for large fields of view)

• Long-duration live-cell dynamics and responses

• Cell migration and movement

• Organelle tracking

• Gene expression studies

• Immune cell response and translocation

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