EU COST actions aim to connect and foster collaborations between research communities in Europe. COMULIS is one such COST action focusing on “COrrelated MUltimodal imaging in LIfe Sciences” It brings together basic life science and (pre)-clinical imaging scientists to combine different imaging technologies with the goal to generate more informative data. The first training school by COMULIS was organised by Work Group 1, Correlative Light Electron Microscopy (CLEM)...

TTP Labtech Ltd, a global leader in the design and development of automated instrumentation and consumables for life science applications, has announced its corporate name change to SPT Labtech effective from January 6, 2020. The change of name is a contractual requirement of its divestment from TTP Group in 2018 with the backing of technology-focused investment firm Battery Ventures....

The Programme Committee for “Advances in Photonic Tools and Techniques for the Life Sciences” conference in Glasgow has announced their choice of invited Keynote speaker. Prof Banafshé Larijani will give a headline presentation on “Oncoprotein activation and dynamics in cancer: A new vision of cancer diagnostics”. Banafshé Larijani is the Director of the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) at the University of Bath and her Cell Biophysics laboratory...

With years of experience in the pharmaceutical and life science sector, Creative Diagnostics launches NanoHollows, which contain cavity enclosed by a non-porous nanoshell. NanoHollows have great potential applications in biological sensing, biomedical imaging and photothermal therapy due to their unique localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) feature...

Merck, a leading science and technology company, has launched the CellASIC® ONIX2 Microfluidic System for advanced live cell imaging.

The system converts laboratory microscopes into powerful tools for live cell imaging to more effectively perform in-depth analysis of cellular mechanisms and behavior in a live environment....

DELMIC develops and manufactures products which are focused on high performance, user friendly, integrated microscopy solutions.

Users of Delmic's SECOM solution for Correlated Light & Electron Microscopy (CLEM) have recently published a review in Nature Methods that illustrates the power of CLEM in the world of biology. The boom in the use of super-resolution microscopies in recent years reached a peak with the award of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Betzig, Hell and Moerner for their contributions in the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy...

The application of morphologically directed Raman spectroscopy to characterizing the component-specific particulate properties of the active components in a topical pharmaceutical cream is described in an application note from Malvern Instruments.

XEI Scientific Inc, manufacturer of the popular EVACTRON^® De-Contaminator™ Plasma Cleaning System for electron microscopes and other vacuum chambers, is pleased to announce the publication of a paper in collaboration with General Electric's Global Research Center on the use of in-situ plasma cleaning.

The paper appears in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology. A contamination, even at extremely low levels, can often hide or distort analyses of surfaces that researchers would like to study. Such is the case of many of the samples analysed at General Electric's Global Research Center in New York. Attempts to study "as received" samples by time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) reveal a contamination signature that has come from processing, handling and/or a specific exposure...

Anasys Instruments reports on EPFL's publication in Plant Cell on the use of nanoIR to look into the process of photosynthesis to shed more light on how plants produce energy

École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, better known as EPFL, has recently reported on how a group of its scientists have used powerful imaging techniques including nanoIR to support a study which sheds light on photosynthesis. All plants use a form of photosynthesis to produce energy, though not all rely exclusively on it. In higher plants, capturing light takes place in specialized compartments called thylakoids. These are found in cell organelles called chloroplasts, which are the equivalent of a power station for the plant....

Multi-mode microplate readers are an indispensable laboratory instrument that enable many applications to be performed on multiple samples.

Life science applications involving cells are increasingly desired due to higher biological relevance associated with functional readouts. Microplate readers can provide quantification of a specific target, such as a protein or its post-translational modification, or phenotypes such as cell death through apoptosis or necrosis. Quantification is provided relative to assay controls and/or standards using dispersive optical detection and light collection with photomultiplier tubes (PMT)...

Market leaders in temperature controlled microscopy, Linkam Scientific Instruments report on the use of their popular THMS600 stage for polymer research at the Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Polymers (CNR), Italy.

A group of scientists from the CNR is investigating the melting kinetics of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), a natural thermoplastic polymer with mechanical properties comparable to synthetic polymers. PHB is now the focus of scientific interest as it has commercial potential as a fully biodegradable and biocompatible product. Potential uses include environmentally friendly packaging and films, pharmaceutical drug administration, and biocompatible resorbable medical implants. Small batches of PHB have been produced since 1925 by bacterial fermentation, but until now there is no large scale commercial production because it is more expensive than commonly used polymers...

With the introduction of the Morphologi G3-ID system last year, Malvern Instruments is providing researchers with the ability to apply morphologically directed Raman spectroscopy to a range of different sample types

XEI Scientific Inc, maker of the popular EVACTRON® De-Contaminator™ Plasma Cleaning System for electron microscopes and other vacuum chambers, reports on how leading contract materials characterization laboratory, RJ Lee Group, Inc., have used an Evactron® specimen cleaning chamber to clean samples ahead of analysis in electron microscopes

Academic, industry professionals can use free or subsidized SpectroCam for data collection

The 15th European Microscopy Congress – emc2012 - held at Manchester Central in September, was the largest yet in the series. It attracted 1,714 registered Conference Delegates. This is a 30% increase on 2008