Microscopes: what’s your requirement?—Olympus exhibits technology at Biotechnica 2007

Olympus offers extensive ranges of microscopes and therefore ensures that every scientist can have the right instrument or system for their research. All of these microscopes are reassuringly easy to use and are designed to be ergonomically correct for all users. Furthermore, the Olympus research level microscopes have the added benefit of modular platforms, enabling even greater flexibility through the use of different accessories, such as a plethora of illumination systems, digital cameras, laser-based systems for imaging or microdissection, objectives, and stages. Therefore, almost every microscope is individual to the user and tailored to their exact needs. Furthermore, features such as the peerless UIS2 optical components ensure that Olympus microscopes give scientists the edge they need to be truly groundbreaking.

Visit the Olympus booth at Biotechnica 2007 from October 9-11 in Hannover, Germany. They will be exhibiting in Hall 9 at Stand E62.

Which technology?
There are three standard optical configurations for microscopes: Upright, inverted and stereo. Different versions of these have been developed for the various purposes and Olympus has microscope ranges across all the technologies to suit everything from routine processes to highly advanced live cell research.

Upright
Olympus offers the CX2 series of microscopes for entry level and routine processes, and the BX2 series for both routine work and advanced research. The flexible nature of the BX2 frame ensures that a number of different components are available to fit the microscope precisely to the user as well the application. Cameras, lightsources and other optical devices can all be quickly and easily added.

Inverted
The Olympus CKX range provides excellent facilities for routine applications such as cell culture and screening. The IX2 range has been designed as an optical bench that offers almost unlimited user flexibility. Multiple optical ports allow the addition of a combination of cameras, standard or advanced illumination sources as well as lasers, providing a range of system solutions for any application.

Stereo
There are two distinctly different stereo optical pathways: Greenough and Galileo. In a Greenough system, such as the Olympus SZ2 microscopes, the light from the object travels in two divergent paths towards the user’s eyes. Each path passes through a separate set of objective lenses and eyepiece. The Galileo system, such as used in the Olympus SZX2 range, on the other hand, uses a single common objective through which the two separate light paths travel in parallel. The light paths are then sent via separate eyepiece assemblies to provide the stereo effect. Olympus SZ2 systems offer excellent precision for routine tasks, providing good depth of field and colour fidelity, in a small microscope. The more advanced SZX2 series enables higher magnification and resolution capabilities and allows the addition of modules into the ligthpaths due their parallel nature.

Macro-zoom
The Olympus MVX10 macro-zoom is a new concept in microscopy that fills the gap between stereo and upright microscopes: it combines the field of view and working distance of stereo microscopes with the sensitivity and resolution of upright microscopes. The MVX10 has been designed for fluorescence work on whole organisms, such as Danio rerio (Zebrafish), where researchers need to switch from a whole organism view to cell-level view without changing microscopes. The optical system provides excellent numerical aperture in combination with a large working distance ensuring that even the faintest of fluorescent can be seen.

System solutions
Using these high quality base system configurations, the addition of accessories provides a plethora of system opportunities to suit all applications.

Confocal microscopy
Olympus has a number of spinning disk and laser-based confocal systems available offering different features. The top of the range system—FluoView FV1000—provides three confocal channels as well as the brightfield channel and features an advanced multilaser combiner which ensures that you have right wavelength available immediately. A SIM scanner can also be added to provide a second scanner so that protocols requiring photoactivation or bleaching can be carried out with simultaneous stimulation and imaging, meaning that important events aren’t missed. Depending on the functional requirements, the FV1000 can be configured as either an inverted or upright system.

scan^R
scan^R is a modular imaging platform designed for fully automated image acquisition and data analysis of biological samples. Its powerful analysis module for biological functional assays, makes it the perfect tool for assay development and high content screening. This provides complex image analysis and advanced data evaluation, which enable it to complete a whole range of standard and bespoke assays. Different particle and object detection functions can be selected and combined with segmentation for efficient and robust image analysis. Further in-depth cytometry-orientated analysis is carried out with the detected objects. Complex multi-parameter data analysis schemes are set up easily by gating and classification.

Laser microdissection
Laser microdissection is growing in popularity since it combines the precision of high end microscopy with the contamination and disruption-free capabilities of pin-point laser excision. As a result, targets like tissues, cells or even cell components such as chromosomes, can be cleanly and quickly excised from any fixed or culture-based sample. The CellCut Plus is an advanced system available for the IX71 or IX81 inverted microscopes and can also offer further features such as laser-based micromanipulation. The entry level version—SmartCut Plus—is perfect for training and routine processes and is build directly onto the Olympus CKX41 inverted microscope. Both systems offer the contamination-free CapLift sample retrieval system with predefined target position for organised sample recovery and the UVcut Plus software.

Conclusion
With a series of microscopes based on the three major optical technologies, Olympus offers every user the microscope they need for their research. The careful design of these microscopes ensures that they form the basis of a number of systems for modern imaging processes such as confocal laser scanning microscopy, laser microdissection and high content screening.