Light Microscopy : Equipment and Fees
Introduction
We have sixteen imaging systems for advanced microscopy methods including confocal (point scanning and spinning disk), multi-photon, FLIM, light-sheet, TIRF, and quantitative phase contrast.
We also have systems for wide-field long-term time-lapse, immuno-fluorescence (basic and slide-scanning), and bright-field H&E.
Cost update: 13 July 2023
| Microscope category | Fees (£/h) |
|---|---|
| Confocal (point scanners. E.g. Zeiss LSM880, Leica SP8, Olympus FV3000) | 18.75 |
| Confocal (array scanners. E.g. Nikon Spinning Disc, Olympus SoRa Spinning disc, VisiTech iSIM) | 12.39 |
| Intravital (E.g. Olympus MP-RSE, Zeiss LSM710 NLO) | 50.06 |
| Lightsheet (E.g. Luxendo Bruker MuVi SPIM, LaVision UM II) | 28.75 |
| Wide-field (E.g. Zeiss Observer.Z1, Zeiss Apotome) | 5.45 |
| Wide-Field Long Term Time-Lapse (E.g. Nikon LTTL1, Phasefocus Livecyte) | 5.74 |
| Slide scanner (E.g. Olympus VS120) | 13.28 |
| SMLM (E.g. Bruker Vutara) | 46.79 |
| Optical Projection Tomography | 9.08 |
| Brainsaw | 8.38 |
| Phenocycler Fusion | 13.43 |
| Atomic Force Microscopy platform (e.g. JPK AFM LSM 710) | 25.30 |
| Twin-Cam TIRF | 15.82 |
| Image analysis workstations | 2.25 |
| Microscopy projects and HREM | Cost (£) |
|---|---|
| Small (1 day) | 294.00 |
| Medium (5 days of work) | 1,469.00 |
| Large (20 days of work) | 5,878.00 |
| Image Analysis | Cost (£) |
|---|---|
| Small (1 day) | 0.00 |
| Medium (5 days of work) | 1,469.00 |
| Large (20 days of work) | 5,878.00 |
Multiphoton & Intravital
Zeiss LSM880 NLO
Additionally, it has an OPO and a delay line to combine the two NIR wavelengths and obtain "virtual photon" excitation.
Tokai hit top stage chamber for live cell imaging experiments.
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Zeiss LSM980 NLO
![Zeiss_LSM710_NLO_up_CALM_theCrick](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="1284" height="1318"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Credit: www.zeiss.com
Zeiss LSM980 NLO Upright (DESCRIPTION in progress)
Book Zeiss LSM980 NLO
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Zeiss MP LSM710
Credit: www.zeiss.com
Zeiss LSM710 NLO Upright is equipped with visible laser lines and Mai Tai Spectra Physics NIR tunable laser that allows two-photon excitation, Second Harmonic Generation and laser ablation. It has an optional environmental chamber for live cell imaging experiments, but is used mainly for intravital imaging.
4 NDD detectors for higher signal detection.
It is located in the In Vivo Imaging unit. To receive training and access to the unit please contact:
Cost: £ 50.06/h
Olympus FV-MPE RS
A stand alone upright multiphoton system primarily for in-vivo imaging. Insight X3 pulsed laser provides at least 1 Watt between 680nm and 1300nm. A dedicated line at 1045nm has more than 3.5 watts power at the laser head. Automatic alignment between lines gives accurate multi-channel imaging. "TruResolution" motorized objective automatically compensates for spherical aberration at depth. Hybrid scanner unit allows conventional speeds with the galvo mirrors or high speed (8KHz (full frame)). Prior z-deck gives large, flexible space for experimental setup whether that is for whole animal or explant culture. Four non-descanned detectors (2GaAsP, 2 PMT).
Book Olympus FV-MPE RS Upright
Cost: £ 50.06/h
Brainsaw
Automated serial sectioning two-photon microscope based on the Baking Tray platform developed at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. Designed for imaging whole mount samples (0.5cm3 - 2cm3) embedded in gel at cellular resolution. Image acquisition performed by resonant point scanning multiphoton microscope with Thorlabs Tiberius Ti sapphire laser tuneable between 680-1040nm and 4 channel detection by multi-alkali PMTs. Sectioning performed by Leica VTS-1000 vibratome.
Book Brainsaw B4-3005 (B4-3005)
Cost: £ 8.38/h
Super-resolution
Olympus FV3000 HSD Inverted
Inverted confocal microscope with 7 laser lines and 4 high sensitivity GaAsP detectors. The resonant scanner is available for fast imaging. It also has an environmental chamber and CO2 supply for use with live cells and tissues. Very flexible software control and particularly good at ‘macro to micro’ imaging.
Book Olympus FV3000 HSD Inverted.
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Zeiss Airyscan LSM880 Inv. (2014)
Zeiss 880 inverted with Airyscan has two detection modes, the conventional confocal and the Airyscan detection and processing, giving an improvement in optical resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. It is equipped with an environmental chamber for live cell imaging experiments.
Book Zeiss Airyscan LSM880 Inverted.
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Zeiss Airyscan LSM880 Inv. (2019)
Zeiss 880 inverted with Airyscan has two detection modes, the conventional confocal and the Airyscan detection and processing, giving an improvement in optical resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. It is equipped with an environmental chamber for live cell imaging experiments.
Book Zeiss Airyscan LSM880 Inverted.
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Olympus SoRa spinning disc
Olympus SoRa DESCRIPTION (in progress)
Book
Cost: £ 12.39/h
Nikon SoRa spinning disc
Nikon SoRa DESCRIPTION (in progress)
Book
Cost: £ 12.39/h
Vutara 352 Super-Resolution
The Vutara 352 super-resolution microscope is designed for single molecule localization applications (PALM, STORM, etc.); currently our set-up is for fixed samples only. The Vutara’s proprietary ResEnhanced and Biplane technology provides advanced 3D imaging at the nanoscale, resolving down to 20 nm in XY and 50 nm in Z. Imaging depths of over 30 µm (3D stacking up to 100 µm in cleared tissue), this high-speed detection system and QLM suite (Quantitative Localization Microscopy suite) allows voxels to be transformed into detailed localization information.
Please email gregory.mashanov@crick.ac.uk for more information and a chat about applying this technology for resolving detail < 100 nanometres.
Cost: £ 46.79/h
Book: Vutara 352
Light-sheet
Luxendo-Bruker MuVi-SPIM
This advanced light-sheet microscope is equipped with dual opposite illumination and detection system, environmental control, digital scanned light-sheet and photomanipulation. It is ideal for fast and long-term multi-view imaging of small (< 1mm) live or fixed samples such as zebrafish/Drosophila embryos, organoids, blastocysts.
Book Luxendo-Bruker MuVi-SPIM.
Cost: £ 28.75/h
LaVision BioTec UltraMicroscopeII
The Ultramicroscope has been designed to address cellular questions in large (1-10 mm) cleared fixed samples. Protected detection objective, 6 light-sheets, low scattering lasers set and a wide range zoom (0.63-6.3x) allow fast and deep tissue imaging in aqueous or solvent-based solutions. It is ideal for studies of organ vasculature, sparse subset of labelled cells or tracing neurons.
Book LaVision BioTec UltraMicroscope II.
Cost: £ 28.75/h
Viventis LS1 Light-sheet
Viventis LS1 light-sheet microscope is equipped with a single 25x 1.1 NA detection lens, switchable magnification, double side illumination, transmitted light, and full environmental control. The open-top configuration allows easy sample mounting and thanks to dedicated multi-well holders it is possible to perform high throughput 3D imaging of several samples. This system is ideal for high resolution long-term live imaging (from hours to days) of multiple organoids, gastruloids, early-stage embryos or any small live sample.
Book Viventis LS1
Cost: £ 28.75/h
Fluorescence Lifetime IMaging (FLIM)
Leica SP8 FALCON Inverted
Leica SP8 FALCON is an inverted microscope equipped with White Light Laser (470-670 nm), 440 nm pulsed laser and 405 nm, 442 nm CW lines. It mounts 1 PMT and 3 HyD detectors (2 of which able to do Fluorescence Lifetime IMaging). It is equipped with an environmental chamber for live cell imaging experiments.
Book Leica FALCON SP8
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Lambert TOGGEL - FLIM camera
Lambert TOGGEL camera coupled to an inverted spinning disk (CSU-W1) confocal microscope. The system is controlled via uManager and is used for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) in the Frequency Domain FLIM.
The system can be used also for Fura-2 Calcium imaging.
Book: To-Fu
Cost: £ 5.74/h
Selective and Structured Illumination
Olympus TIRF IX83
Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence microscope equipped with Olympus TIRF combiner for independent angle adjustment of four laser lines. Sensitive EMCCD camera and high NA (150X/1.45) objective gives an ideal sampling for sensitivity and resolution. The solution for experiments requiring visualisation of multiple fluorophores close to the coverslip. It has stage top environmental control for live cell work.
Book Olympus TIRF IX83
Cost: £ 5.74/h
VisiTech iSIM
Courtesy: Steven Coleman (VisiTech)
VisiTech iSIM
Spatial Resolution: 120 nm laterally and 300 nm Axially
Temporal resolution: Scan Speed up to 1000 fps @ full frame
With Scientific CMOS camera achievable capture rates: 200 fps @ 1024x1024, 400 fps @1024x512, 800 fps @1024x256
Pin holes: Selectable from 10-64 um
Z-Axis Travel Range (+/- 5%) 300 μm
Cost: £ 12.39/h
Zeiss Apotome.2
The Apotome uses structured illumination on a regular widefield microscope to producehigh contrast optical sections. For fluorescence, a grid is projected onto the sample by theApotome2 unit. Three images are acquired with the grid in slightly different positions andthen this collection is processed in Zen to produce a single optical section with improvedcontrast and resolution. The Microscope is fitted with motorised X, Y and Z axes making iteasy to produce high quality tiled stacks even from thick samples
Book: Zeiss Apotome.2
Cost: £ 5.45/h
2cam-TIRFM
Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence microscope equipped with 2 cameras, The system allows the simultaneous visualisation of 2 fluorescence channels.
Please get in contact with gregory.mashanov@crick.ac.uk .
Cost: £ 15.82/h
Confocal
Leica SP8 Inv. WLL - 3NW
Leica SP8 Inverted - 3rd floor North West.
Illumination: White Light Laser, 405 nm, Argon.
Is equipped with incubator for live cell imaging.
Book: Leica SP8 Inverted 3NW
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Leica SP8 Inverted - 5SW
Leica SP8 Inverted - 5th floor South West.
Illumination: 405 nm, Argon, 561 nm, 633 nm.
Is equipped with incubator for live cell imaging.
Book Leica SP8 Invert 5SW
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Nikon CSU-W1 Spinning Disk
This twin camera spinning disk confocal is ideal for fast sensitive imaging of live samples.The CSU-W1 spinning disk head is equipped with a choice of pinholes and is equally at home with low and high numerical aperture objectives. It has a motorized stage and environmental control making it ideal for multi position time lapse experiments that require 3D stack acquisition. In addition it has a galvo scanner for photo manipulation of samples during imaging protocols.
Book Nikon CSU-W1 Spinning Disk
Cost: £ 12.39/h
Zeiss LSM710 Inverted - JPK AFM
Zeiss LSM710 inverted confocal is equipped with an environmental chamber for live cell imaging experiments.
Mounts JPK AFM head.
Book Zeiss LSM710 Invert with AFM
Cost: £ 25.30/h
Zeiss LSM710 Upright 3SW
Zeiss 710 upright confocal is used for the acquisition of fixed sample mounted on a slide.
Book Zeiss LSM710 Upright
Cost: £ 18.75/h
Nikon A1R Upright 3SW
Nikon A1R Upright confocal has both a resonant scanner for high speed functional imaging and a galvo scanner for structural imaging. It can be operated with a 4 channel bandpass PMT/GaAsP detectors or a full spectral detector. It is equipped with an incubator for live cell imaging
Book Nikon A1R Upright
Cost: NA
Wide-field
CALM Long-Term Time-Lapse 1
Long-term time-lapse (LTTL) wide-field systems Nikon LTT1, LTTL2 an LTTL3 configuration:
'Perfect Focus' option, precision ASI and motorised stage, environmental regulation (temperature and CO2), LED light sources.
DAPI, GFP, TRITC, mCherry, CFP YFP, and CFP FRET, over a range of magnifications and resolutions (from 2X/0.1NA - 100X/1.49 NA).
See more about CALM LTTL microscopes.
Book: Nikon LTTL1
Cost: £ 5.74/h
CALM Long-Term Time-Lapse 2
Long-term time-lapse (LTTL) wide-field systems Nikon LTT1, LTTL2 an LTTL3 configuration:
'Perfect Focus' option, precision ASI and motorised stage, environmental regulation (temperature and CO2), LED light sources.
DAPI, GFP, TRITC, mCherry, CFP YFP, and CFP FRET, over a range of magnifications and resolutions (from 2X/0.1NA - 100X/1.49 NA).
See more about CALM LTTL microscopes.
Book: Nikon LTTL2
Cost: £ 5.74/h
CALM Long-Term Time-Lapse 3
Long-term time-lapse (LTTL) wide-field systems Nikon LTT1, LTTL2 an LTTL3 configuration:
'Perfect Focus' option, precision ASI and motorised stage, environmental regulation (temperature and CO2), LED light sources.
DAPI, GFP, TRITC, mCherry, CFP YFP, and CFP FRET, over a range of magnifications and resolutions (from 2X/0.1NA - 100X/1.49 NA).
See more about CALM LTTL microscopes.
Book: Nikon LTTL3
Cost: £ 5.74/h
Phasefocus Livecyte - QPI
The Livecyte uses a Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI) technique called ptychography to get label-free imaging:
- motorised stage, temperature and CO2 regulation; 10x, 20x or 40x magnification for large fields of view (up to 2mm2),
- additional 3 epifluorescence channels, blue (EX 350-405 nm, EM 412-480 mm), green (EX 470-490 nm, EM 510-540 nm) and red (EX 537-580 nm, EM 600-650 nm).
See more about Phasefocus Livecyte.
Cost: £ 5.74/h
Olympus VS120 Slide Scanner
For automated colour brightfield and fluorescence microscopy. This system will identify and tile image variously stained histological and immunohistochemical slides automatically.
With bulk loader (up to 100 slides) this system can be set up and left to get on with imaging your samples. Colour camera for H & E or similar, sensitive monochrome camera for, up to, four channel fluorescence imaging.
Book: Olympus VS120 slide scanner
Cost: £ 13.28/h
Olympus VS200 Slide Scanner
For automated colour brightfield and fluorescence microscopy. This system will identify and tile image variously stained histological and immunohistochemical slides automatically.
With a bulk loader (up to 100 slides) this system can be set up and left to get on with imaging your samples. Colour camera for H & E or similar, sensitive monochrome camera for, up to, four-channel fluorescence imaging.
Cost: £ 13.28/h
Microscope currently is run as a service: please contact calm@crick.ac.uk .
Zeiss Manual AxioImager.M1
AxioImager.M1 upright wide-field can be used for the acquisition of fixed sample mounted on a slide. It is equipped with selective bandpass filters and "Micro-Manager" open hardware acquisition software.
Cost: £ 5.45/h
Zeiss Motorized AxioImager.M1
AxioImager.M1 upright wide-field has motorised stage and can be used for intelligent acquisition of fixed sample mounted on a slide. It is equipped with selective bandpass filters and "Micro-Manager" open hardware acquisition software.
Cost: £ 5.45/h
Zeiss Observer.Z1 Inv.
Cost: £ 5.45/h
Phenocycler Fusion
Whole-slide imaging at single-cell resolution to visualise and quantitate up to 100 biomarker expression and reveal how cells interact and organise across an entire tissue landscape.
https://intranet.crick.ac.uk/our-crick/high-multiplex-imaging-club/pages/phenocycler-fusion-ex-codex
Book: Phenocycler Fusion
Cost: £ 13.43/h
High-Resolution Episcopic Microscopy (HREM)
HREM platforms
High-Resolution Episcopic Microscopy (HREM) is a technique for visualising tissue samples, such as mouse embryos, as a large stack of successive 2D images. The resolution of the images approaches that of conventional histology and, since they are perfectly aligned, they can be used to construct very detailed 3D models.
Extensive details about the technique:
https://dmdd.org.uk/hrem/
Latest update
Latest update: Rocco D'Antuono 11/10/2023
