Denmark – Microscopes – [Andor Dragonfly microscope] to [Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen]

As many of the projects in our section is centred around 4D live sampling of wholemount tissues, fast acquisition is crucial to visualize subcellular-, cellular-, and tissue-scale processes at high spatiotemporal resolution. These needs are only met by spinning discs confocal microscopes. Specific assets of the Andor Dragonfly microscope compare with other spinning discs are: 1) Andor instruments use the patented Borealis® uniform illumination, which delivers uniform illumination in the full field of view using an array of microlenses. This allows high spatial resolution with reduced artefacts due to heterogeneity in illumination along the edges. 2) Andor uses High Power Laser Engine (HLE) with multimode fibre and solid state diode lasers. HLE offers tunable laser power: high power for faster acquisition from fixed samples and gentle illumination for live cell samples. 3) Andor provides a basic license for the Imaris software which is a great tool for 3D rendering, 4D segmentation, and fundamental quantitative bioimage analysis. 4) Andor provides dual camera ports with two highly sensitive sCMOS camera. This will reduce the acquisition time 20x and can significantly reduce photobleaching and phototoxicity upon live-cell imaging. The cameras come with SRRF-stream+ algorithm that provides super-resolved images.