Industrial collaborations

From Liebel-lab

Olympus Scan^R Screening Microscope (magnify)

(collaboration with Olympus Europa and Olympus Soft Imaging Solutions.
We developed the Scan^R Screening station software in collaboration with Olympus. Scan^R screening microscopes can be found in many labs already and allow fully automated high quality image acquisition. Projects fom 100 - 15 Mio images have been realized on 1-4 parallel running Scan^R microscopes.
The KIT screening facility offers several Scan^R screening microscopes, data storage solutions and an image processing cluster.

• Scan^R microscopes features:
  • MT20 ultra stable Xe light source (< 1% over 1000h)
  • Scan^R real-time controller for precise and stable device control.
  • Cell detecting autofocus (e.g focus only on metaphase cells)
  • robotic gripper for microtiter plate handling
  • 6x fluorescent channel + brightfield channel

Scan^R Publication A microscope-based screening platform for large-scale functional protein analysis in intact cells
U. Liebel, V. Starkuviene, H. Erfle, J. Simpson, A. Poustka, S. Wiemann, R. Pepperkok - FEBS Letters, Volume 554, Issue 3, Pages 394-398

CAM - Computer Aided Microscopy (Sieckmann(Leica) / Peravali / Legradi / Gröbner / Liebel)

• Computer Aided microscopy "converts" your automated Leica microscope (SP5) to an intelligent screening microscope.
• CAM is a joint development project of Leica microsystems and KIT (started at EMBL Heidelberg (Mitocheck project)

• Various CAM software modules detect structures of interest
  • e.g. mitotic cells, zebrafish structures, rare cell types (transfected cells).
• Experiments start automatically after an interesting structure/staining has been indentified.
• CAM integrates microscope, data storage systems, computing clusters and robotics in a flexible screening environment
• CAM allows very complex assay automation
• CAM features a "training interface".
• CAM allows integration of ANY image processing routine.
• CAM allows low resolution overview images + high resolution detailed analysis of biologically interesting structures in the same run.
• CAM software runs on one or several PCs within your network and communicates with microscopes in "real-time"
• CAM has an easy, human readable language that can be implemented in any programming language (LabView, Matlab, C++, C#, Java, Python etc.)
• CAM reduces data storage needs up to 90%
• CAM increases screening speed x-fold --> only interesting cells/structures are acquired.

Automatic Water immersion objective (collaboration with Leica/EMBL (Sieckmann/Winkler - Liebel)

Leica Microsystems (magnify)

In collaboration with Leica microsystems (Frank Sieckmann) and EMBL mechanical workshop (Sigfried Winkler), we developed (originally for the Mitocheck project) an automatic water immersion objective. The automatic water dispenser allows long term (48h+) imaging experiments with a water objective. The dispenser cap also enables long term screening experiments with many position across a sample.

• See the Leica Microsystems webpage for details. http://www.leica-microsystems.com
• See Harvester42 for all Leica microsystems news Leica News
• Find the flyer here Automatic water objective

Features of the automatic water objective:

• No interaction required during the experiment
• Water reservoir fits in the center of the objective holder (magnetic)
• Software controlled water immersion supply
• No water damage (to the microscope) due to water protection collar
• Prevents disruption of water film during stage movement – intelligent water cap design
• Correction ring accessible -> optimal image quality
• Full free working distance available
• No separate water heating required – Water reservoir and micro pump fit into climate chamber
• Patent pending