Nov 17 2010
Nikon Instruments, Inc., an innovator of advanced optical instruments, announced today that its N-SIM Super Resolution microscope is now available for purchase and delivery.
The microscope will be on exhibit at the Neuroscience 2010 show in San Diego, Calif., taking place November 13-17, 2010.
In December 2009, Nikon announced it had signed an agreement with the University of California, San Francisco Office of Technology Management for Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) technology. Under the terms of the agreement, UCSF is licensing its technology to Nikon to make N-SIM enabled microscopes. The new microscope system incorporates the technology licensed from UCSF and is designed to realize resolution higher than can be achieved by conventional optical microscopes.
"The N-SIM super resolution system utilizes Nikon's innovative new approach to 'Structured Illumination Microscopy' providing double the resolution of standard microscopes at speeds capable of studying dynamic nanoscopic events in living cells. We at Nikon Instruments are very excited to announce its availability for purchase," said Stephen Ross, General Manager of Products and Marketing, Nikon Instruments Inc. "This system will allow scientists to investigate questions in ways never possible before."
There is a universal desire among top-end life science researchers to observe tissues and cells more clearly. Optical microscopes are essential for this purpose. However, if multiple objects such as protein molecules cluster at distances of less than 200nm apart, conventional optical microscopes cannot identify them as single objects. In this case, other instrumentation such as electron microscopes previously had to be used.
Now, Nikon introduces super resolution fluorescence microscopy technology which greatly exceeds the resolution limits of conventional optical microscopes, making it possible to view microstructures and nanostructures of fixed and living cells with molecular-scale resolution. These dramatic achievements for the Nikon Super Resolution Microscope N-SIM are noted below.
Source: http://www.nikoninstruments.com/