New Software Package Provides Increased Versatility for Laser Scanning Microscopes

A new software package increases the possible applications for a range of confocal laser scanning microscopes.

The FV10-ASW 3.0 software package has been released recently by Olympus (Hamburg, Germany) for use with their FluoView FV1000 range of confocal laser scanning microscopes (cLSM) and Fluoview FV1000MPE (multiphoton excitation) systems.

When configured for visible excitation, the FluoViewTM FV1000 is capable of simultaneous collection from up to four detection channels using multiple laser and conventional illumination sources. Wavelength selection and flexible control of laser intensity with advanced AOTF (acoustic-optic tunable filter) technology permits reduced specimen fading, lower crosstalk, and excitation area selection. Olympus confocal microscopes are intended for 3-D imaging, time course experiments, energy transfer visualization, and photobleaching recovery experiments. The instruments may be configured on either the IX2 inverted research microscope platform or the BX2 upright research microscope platform.

The new software incorporates high dynamic range imaging (HDRI), with which a greater dynamic range of fluorescence between the lightest and darkest areas of a sample is obtained. Signal to noise ratios are minimized, enabling clear, highly resolved images to be easily captured. Partial stitching with multiarea time-lapse imaging, and channel unmixing for the FluoView FV1000MPE systems, provides advanced flexibility for obtaining the best possible laser scanning microscope images. The new software is fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 7.

Version 3.0 of the FV10-ASW software allows users to select specific areas of the whole sample, which can be chosen and stitched together with ease. Furthermore, users can perform spectral unmixing of multicolor samples, even those with significant spectral emission cross-over. A laser limiter also sets upper intensity boundaries to avoid over stimulation of sensitive samples, thus ensuring that cellular integrity is maintained.

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