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  • Intrinsic Signal Optical Imaging

    The brain is one of the most complex objects in the known universe, both in terms of structure and function. This makes imaging the brain an incredibly challenging task, with researchers looking at the movement of signalling ions (see app note on Calcium Imaging), structure of cells and the electrical activity of neurons (see app note on Electrophysiology).

  • Rolling vs Global Shutter

    The shutter is a typical component of a camera, whether mechanical or electronic. For scientific cameras, mechanical shutters are typically slow and subject to maintenance as a frequently moving part, at Teledyne Photometrics our CCD, EMCCD, and CMOS scientific cameras use electronic shutters.

  • Introduction To Electrophysiology

    Electrophysiology is the study of electrical properties of biological cells and tissues, and can be broadly split into neural (nerves throughout the body, especially the spine and brain, also the retina) and cardiac (to do with the heart) electrophysiology. Electrophysiology is a vital tool in neuroscience, where the right tools can interrogate the activity of neurons and/or astrocytes as they communicate using electrical signals.

  • Super-Resolution Spinning Disk Confocal

    Dr. Joana Delgado Martins is a research associate at the Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis, a facility at the University of Zurich, which is run by Dr. Urs Ziegler. The center has recently acquired a new Olympus SpinSR SoRa system along with two Prime BSI cameras. Dr. Martins works closely alongside researchers to improve imaging in a variety of different applications.

  • Imaging Photon Bose-Einstein Condensate

    The Adaptive Quantum Optics Lab in University of Twente performs advanced research on the physics of quantum light for applications in (quantum) information science and technology. PhD student Chris Toebes works in this lab with photon Bose Einstein condensates (BECs).

  • X-ray Beam Characterisation

    Dr. Roelof van Silfout is a researcher at KU Leuven, working on a variety of projects mostly concerning x-rays. Dr van Silfout explained one of his experiments, “We are interested in defining or measuring the position of a hard x-ray beam.

  • Optogenetics

    Neurons in the brain communicate with chemical and electricity signals. Neuroscience has developed numerous probes and electrodes in order to detect this activity, and try to figure out what the neurons in each brain area do.

  • Single Molecule FRET

    Prof. Ehud Isacoff’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley, USA is interested in the mechanistic properties of metabotropic and ionotropic receptor subunits and the role the resultant protein complexes play in signal transduction. His group uses a combination of microscopy approaches including single molecule Föester resonance energy transfer (smFRET) in live cells, and in vivo imaging in a variety of species.

  • Single Molecule Imaging

    TheLeeLab, at the University of Cambridge, focuses its research on developing biophysical tools to answer fundamental biological questions, primarily using single-molecule fluorescence imaging techniques.

  • mesoSPIM

    The mesoSPIM initiative (mesospim.org) is an open science project aimed at making light-sheet microscopes for imaging large cleared tissue samples more accessible to the imaging community. The acronym mesoSPIM stands for “mesoscale selective plane illumination microscopy” and the project was started in 2015 by Dr. Fabian Voigt and Prof. Fritjof Helmchen at the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zürich.

  • Bit Depth, Full Well, and Dynamic Range

    Cameras are a vital technology in scientific imaging, working as an interface between light and a digital image. There are a number of steps involved to convert photons of signal from your sample to the image you see on your computer monitor, each step has variables and factors that can change the ways in which images are generated.

  • The Retiga ELECTRO For Electrophysiology

    Electrophysiology is a method to study the function of electrically active properties of cells. It is widely used in both clinical applications, such as electroencephalograms (EEGs) and research applications, such as the monitoring of single ion channels. A large amount of the research on the physiology and electrical activity of neurons and their networks is performed at the cellular level, and knowledge of common microscopy techniques is essential.