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!

Fast, High-quality Vitrification with the EM ICE High Pressure Freezer

The EM ICE High Pressure Freezer was developed with a unique freezing principle and uses only a single pressurization and cooling liquid: liquified nitrogen (LN2). This design enables three major…

Cryo FIB lamella - Overlay of SEM and confocal fluorescence image. Target structure in yeast cells (nuclear pore proteine Nup159-Atg8-split Venus, red) marked by an arrow. Scale bar: 5 µm. Alegretti et al., Nature 586, 796-800 (2020).

Targeting Active Recycling Nuclear Pore Complexes using Cryo Confocal Microscopy

In this article, how cryo light microscopy and, in particular cryo confocal microscopy, is used to improve the reliability of cryo EM workflows is described. The quality of the EM grids and samples is…

Moving to Routine Use of Intraoperative OCT in Eye Surgery

Dr Barbara Parolini is one of the pioneers in the use of intraoperative OCT in eye surgery. Since 2016, she has gained a lot of clinical experience with different intraoperative OCT systems. In this…

Mouse kidney section with Alexa Fluor™ 488 WGA, Alexa Fluor™ 568 Phalloidin, and DAPI. Sample is a FluoCells™ prepared slide #3 from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA. Images courtesy of Dr. Reyna Martinez – De Luna, Upstate Medical University, Department of Ophthalmology.

The Power of Pairing Adaptive Deconvolution with Computational Clearing

Learn how deconvolution allows you to overcome losses in image resolution and contrast in widefield fluorescence microscopy due to the wave nature of light and the diffraction of light by optical…

Topographic Analysis of Firing Pin Impressions on Cartridge Cases

The analysis of fired cartridges for primer cup morphology and flattening and firing pin impression (crater) depth using topographic data is discussed in this article. Topographical analysis of the…

Completed Bleb, courtesy of Robert A. Sisk, MD, FACS, Cincinnati Eye Institute.

Intraoperative OCT-Assisted Gene Therapy

Gene augmentation therapy is a method of ocular gene transfer for autosomal recessive or X-linked retinal dystrophies when there is insufficient functional protein manifesting as genetic disease.…

How does an Automated Rating Solution for Steel Inclusions Work?

The rating of non-metallic inclusions (NMIs) to determine steel quality is critical for many industrial applications. For an efficient and cost-effective steel quality evaluation, an automated NMI…

Mouse retina was fixed and stained by following reagents: anti-CD31 antibody (green): Endothelia cells, IsoB4 (red): Blood vessels, and microglia anti-GFAP antibody (blue): Astrocytes Sample courtesy by Jeremy Burton, PhD and Jiyeon Lee, PhD, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, USA. Imaged by Olga Davydenko, PhD (Leica). Imaged with a THUNDER Imager 3D Cell Culture.

An Introduction to Computational Clearing

Many software packages include background subtraction algorithms to enhance the contrast of features in the image by reducing background noise. The most common methods used to remove background noise…

Challenges Faced When Manually Rating Non-Metallic Inclusions (NMIs) to Determine Steel Quality

Rapid, accurate, and reliable rating of non-metallic inclusions (NMIs) is instrumental for the determination of steel quality. This article describes the challenges that arise from manual NMI rating,…