Bioluminescence microscopy
COMPARE at the University of Nottingham have recently taken receipt of and set up two exciting new systems, the Olympus LV (Luminoview) 200 and the Phase Focus Livecyte.
Olympus LV200 Inverted Microscope
The Olympus LV200 is an inverted microscope setup which allows the imaging of bioluminescence. As there is no need to excite the sample as you would do in fluorescence imaging, bioluminescence offers improved signal-to-noise ratio and no phototoxicity nor photobleaching. The LV200 is encased in a light-tight dark box and there is minimal distance between your sample and the EM-CCD camera allowing maximal light collection and high-quality images. Due to this sensitivity image acquisition is fast allowing for the study of kinetics. The LV200 microscope is ideal for taking single cell bioluminescence readings and due to the environmental chamber samples can be imaged over longer time periods. Our system has the following objectives; 60xOil (1.42NA), 40xOil (1.3NA) 40x (0.6NA), 20x (0.75NA), 10x (0.4NA).
The Olympus LV200 in place within our designated, temperature controlled, microscope room.