Lenses for laser dissection and micromanipulation

Laser microdissection and laser micro-manipulation of small organisms, cells or subcellular structures is a growing market need and requires objectives with excellent optical performance.

To facilitate laser microdissection and laser micro-manipulation of small organisms, the new range of UIS2 objectives from Olympus has been recently introduced.

This range features excellent new options with extended transmission in UV and IR, long working distance and high numerical aperture (NA).

The combination of new performance features makes the new UIS2 objectives ideal for use with Olympus CellCut and SmartCut laser microdissection systems to isolate material for subsequent analysis in molecular pathology, cancer research, genomics/proteomics, cell biology, cytogenetics, pharmacy and forensic medicine.

Light transmission at 355nm, the wavelength of the solid state UVA laser in the CellCut and SmartCut laser microdissection systems, is enhanced in the new UIS2 ranges of universal plan fluorite LUCPLFLN objectives and universal plan fluorite UPLFLN objectives.

The specific numerical apertures of the UIS2 objectives are used to focus the computer controlled laser precisely into the specimen.

Cutting and extraction of a wide range of specified cell or cell compartment targets is easily performed.

The LUCPLFLN objectives, with 20x, 40x and 60x magnification, have a correction collar to adjust for different thicknesses of samples.

This enables flexible working with contamination free membrane slides and patented CapLift technology, as well as cell or tissue culture vessels.

The UPLFLN objectives, with 4x, 10x, 20x, 40x, 60x, and 100x magnification, are designed to work with 0.17mm cover glass combined with contamination free membrane slides.

Due to the enhanced IR transmittance within both the new series, they are ideal if optical tweezing is required as an option.

Specifically for laser micromanipulation applications, the LUCPLFLN 20x objective has an unusually high NA (0.45) for its type, as well as a long working distance from 6.4 up to 7.6mm.

The LUCPLFLN 40x objective has an NA of 0.6 and working distance from 2.7 to 4.0mm.

The 60x objective has NA of 0.7 and working distance from 1.5 to 2.2mm.

All three objectives are available as PH- and RC contrast versions to enhance contrast in live cell handling and can also be used with high resolving DIC.

Other important examples for laser microdissection purposes are available in the UPLFLN series.

The UPLFLN40x/O and UPLFLN60x/OI have very high resolving power due to NAs of 1.3 or 1.2.

This is indispensable for selective ablation or cutting of chromosomes, as well as for precise cell fusion work or when creating small self-healing holes in cell membranes.

For experiments that entail frequent switching between different magnifications, both magnifications are also available in a dry version with no need for oil immersion.

All UIS2 objectives are made of a new type of glass material which provides low auto fluorescence and excellent signal to noise ratios.

Furthermore, with the unique coupling of the 355nm solid state UVa laser into the Olympus IX2 inverted microscope, the CellCut microdissection system supports research functions indispensable for work with fluorescence labelled targets.

The new UIS2 objectives are an integral and key part of both Olympus CellCut and SmartCut laser microdissection systems which have been introduced to optimise laser microdissection applications in combination with optional Multibeam tweezers.

Interfaced with Olympus inverted IX2 microscopes and using solid-state UVa laser with unique patented CapIsolation technology, CellCut and SmartCut rapidly and accurately isolate single cells or groups of cells from a broad range of sample types with no contamination.

This is crucial for applications involving DNA, RNA and protein extraction in subsequent downstream analyses.

Back to top