New GE Healthcare Microscope Offers Enhanced Resolution

A new super-resolution microscope, DeltaVision OMX Flex, recently launched by GE Healthcare in September 2019, will support researchers and their ever-increasing need to see extreme details in cells, without having to choose whether speed, depth, or clarity is more important. The microscope is a highly stable, multichannel imaging platform optimized for structured illumination microscopy (SIM) that now includes EDGE confocal technology.

Super Resolution Microscopy (SRM) includes the most powerful microscopy tools used for investigating cellular structures because of the level of detail (resolution) they can reveal to a researcher when their biological questions require more information, the company has stated.

“Scientists are increasingly using live cell samples to capture dynamic biological processes in real-time. So, the demand is that imaging tools must deliver faster, higher-resolution, and deeper imaging-but using as little light as possible so they can successfully keep the cells alive,” says Emmanuel Abate, general manager, Genomics & Cellular Research, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, in a company press release. “The new OMX FLEX provides even more ways for our research customers to interrogate their samples and gain more insights.”

According to GE Healthcare, in the past, researchers have had to accept partial answers when the diffraction limit of traditional microscopy tools did not provide the level of resolution required for complete understanding, but they are no longer limited by the tools available. SRM can benefit all research areas currently using light microscopy methods, from microbiology through plant biology and all the cellular- based research in between.

The DeltaVision OMX Flex can capture the exact details of cell division with enhanced clarity and contrast. Researchers and clinicians in areas of molecular and cellular biology, virology, cancer research, and the like often use confocal microscopes and need to image thick, live, or dim samples. Photobleaching, or excess light exposure, in current imaging modes can be harmful to each of these types of samples.

“Based on the growing needs of researchers to image more complex 3D samples, we integrated our proven IN Cell 6500HS EDGE enhanced confocal technology onto the DeltaVision OMX platform. This emerging confocal capability gives enhanced contrast through the increased depth of these 3D samples. Combined with the other modes, the DeltaVision OMX Flex lets researchers easily switch between imaging modes and go from a micro- to a nanoview of tissues, cells, and organelles,” said Prachi Bogetto, Diagnostics Segment leader, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, in the press release.

The EDGE-enhanced confocal technique uses an innovative approach to measure and remove the out-of-focus light contribution that can otherwise remain in traditional line-scanning confocal images. This image quality enhancement is especially prominent for cells grown in 3D culture, such as spheroids and organoids, where out-of-focus light dramatically and negatively affects image contrast, according to GE Healthcare.

Source: GE Healthcare