Leica Sp8 Lightning Single Photon

The Biology Department Leica SP8 (Spectral Detector) Lightning LSCM was installed in December of 2018.  It is built upon a Leica DMi8 fully motorized inverted microscope and offers a resonant scanner in addition to the conventional galvanometer scanner (x2y Tandem Scanner); a piezo driven stage z drive;  two ultra-sensitive HyD detectors plus two conventional PMT detectors; and a transmitted light detector.  Channel separation for dyes is achieved via a fully-tunable prism-based spectral detector to provide unparalleled control of wavelength transmission.  The piezo drive provides ultrafast Z scan acquisition, and the resonant scanner can scan at 8000 Hz for even the fastest of live cell imaging requirements.  The instrument has 5 lasers running at 405 to 638 nm, along with 4 objectives ranging from 10X to 63X.  Three modular stage inserts accommodate slides, petri dishes, and multiwell plates.   Image acquisition and processing is run by Leica LAS X software and includes modules for Tilescanning on the fly (Navigator), FRET, FRAP, 3D viewing and analysis, and Leica’s proprietary Adaptive Deconvolution package (Lightning).  The software is extremely user-friendly, walking users through complicated experimental designs quickly and easily.