Leica Microsystems: Leica Science Lab

Science Lab

The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems offers scientific research and teaching material on the subjects of microscopy. The content is designed to support beginners, experienced practitioners and scientists alike in their everyday work and experiments. Explore interactive tutorials and application notes, discover the basics of microscopy as well as high-end technologies – become part of the Science Lab community and share your expertise!

Brain organoid section (DAPI) acquired using THUNDER Imager Live Cell. Image courtesy of Janina Kaspar and Irene Santisteban, Schäfer Lab, TUM.

Imaging Organoid Models to Investigate Brain Health

Imaging human brain organoid models to study the phenotypes of specialized brain cells called microglia, and the potential applications of these organoid models in health and disease.

Mouse cortical neurons. Transgenic GFP (green). Image courtesy of Prof. Hui Guo, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, China

How Microscopy Helps the Study of Mechanoceptive and Synaptic Pathways

In this podcast, Dr Langenhan explains how microscopy helps his team to study mechanoceptive and synaptic pathways, their challenges, and how they overcome them.

Raw widefield and THUNDER image of calcium transients in Drosophila embryos. Courtesy A. Carreira-Rosario, Clandinin laboratory, California, USA.

Central Nervous System (CNS) Development and Activity in Organisms

This article shows how studying central nervous system (CNS) development in Drosophila-melanogaster embryos expressing a GCaMP calcium indicator in the neurons can be improved with a THUNDER Imager.

Going Beyond Deconvolution

Widefield fluorescence microscopy is often used to visualize structures in life science specimens and obtain useful information. With the use of fluorescent proteins or dyes, discrete specimen…

Identification of distinct structures_roundworm_Ascaris_female

Find Relevant Specimen Details from Overviews

Switch from searching image by image to seeing the full overview of samples quickly and identifying the important specimen details instantly with confocal microscopy. Use that knowledge to set up…

Left-hand image: The distribution of immune cells (white) and blood vessels (pink) in white adipose tissue (image captured using the THUNDER Imager 3D Cell Culture). Right-hand image: The same image after automated analysis using Aivia, with each immune cell color-coded based on its distance to the nearest blood vessel. Image courtesy of Dr. Selina Keppler, Munich, Germany.

Accurately Analyze Fluorescent Widefield Images

The specificity of fluorescence microscopy allows researchers to accurately observe and analyze biological processes and structures quickly and easily, even when using thick or large samples. However,…

Optimizing THUNDER Platform for High-Content Slide Scanning

With rising demand for full-tissue imaging and the need for FL signal quantitation in diverse biological specimens, the limits on HC imaging technology are tested, while user trainability and…

C. elegans Gonades - THUNDER Imager Adult hermaphrodit, Staining: blue - DAPI (Nucleus), green - SP56 (sperms), red - RME-2 (oocyte), mangenta - PGL-1 (RNA + protein granules) Image courtesy of Prof. Dr. Christian Eckmann, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany

Physiology Image Gallery

Physiology is about the processes and functions within a living organism. Research in physiology focuses on the activities and functions of an organism’s organs, tissues, or cells, including the…

Virally labeled neurons (red) and astrocytes (green) in a cortical spheroid derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. THUNDER Model Organism Imagerwith a 2x 0.15 NA objective at 3.4x zoomwas used to produce this 425 μm Z-stack (26 positions), which is presented here as an Extended Depth of Field(EDoF)projection.

Neuroscience Images

Neuroscience commonly uses microscopy to study the nervous system’s function and understand neurodegenerative diseases.