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• Leica Microsystems and Leica Biosystems strengthen market position in Brazil

  Leica Microsystems and Leica Biosystems have cemented ties with their Brazilian Leica distributor: All shares of Aotec Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda of São Paulo, Brazil, have been acquired. Aotec is a provider of microscopy and histopathology solutions and has been a Leica distributor for more than more

• 50 years of image analysis
  

  Fifty years ago the development of modern image analysis began. These early systems used to fill a whole room with electronics, very different from today’s elegant, distinctive desktop set-up. In 1962, the first automated system for the analysis of microscope images was developed by the Cambridge-ba more

• Leica Biosystems To Acquire Aperio

  Leica Biosystems announced that an affiliate has entered into a definitive agreement to acquireAperio, a leading provider of ePathology solutions.Aperio will be integrated into Leica Biosystems. Together, the two businesses will leverage each other's strengths to grow and expand digital pathology in more

White papers Leica

• Sniffing Out the Secrets of Social Behavior
  

  In his novel "Perfume - the Story of a Murderer", Patrick Süskind managed to put the power of odors into words better than anyone before him. It may be a fascinating idea, but no one will ever be able to create the perfect fragrance that makes a person irresistibly attractive. In the animal world, on the other hand, olfactory signals are an essential element of social communication. Yet we are only just beginning to understand the complexities and functional differences of the sense of smell in mammals. Professor Marc Spehr is leading the Department of Chemosensation at RWTH Aachen University since 2009, where he is conducting research on the neuronal mechanisms of olfactory perception and signal processing using the mouse model. In his experiments, he and his team are trying to find out how substances for social interaction are perceived and how this perception generates a specific type of behavior more

• Nature's Ingenuity Shows the Way
  

  Up to 80 percent of our experience of our visual environment takes place via our visual perception. Without spatial vision, we would hardly be able to stay oriented. In recent decades, the neurosciences have gained many insights into the complex processes by which our brain's visual cortex and cerebral cortex do the fascinating job of processing the signals originating from the eyes into an image. A study carried out jointly by Leica Microsystems and the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology showed how flexible and powerfull our brain joins visual signals to create an optimal spatial image. The results provided the basis for an innovation in stereomicroscopy which, in terms of resolution and focus depth, has broken through limits that were previously impossible to overcome. more

• New Standard in Electrophysiology and Deep Tissue Imaging
  

  The function of nerve and muscle cells relies on ionic currents flowing through ion channels. These ion channels play a major role in cell physiology. One way to investigate ion channels is to use patch clamping. This method allows investigation of ion channels in detail and recording of the electric activity of different types of cells, mainly excitable cells like neurons, muscle fibres or beta cells of the pancreas. The patch clamping technique was developed by Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann in the 1970s and 80s to study individual ion channels in living cells. In 1991 they received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for their work. Today the patch clamping technique is one of the most important methods in the field of electrophysiology more

Publications Leica

• Transmission Electron Microscopy of Thin Sections of Drosophila: High-Pressure Freezing and Freeze-Substitution

  The state of the art in fine-structure preservation for thin sectioning can be achieved by using fast-freezing technology followed by freeze substitution and embedding in resin. Samples prepared by high-pressure freezing are estimated to be "fixed" in 20–50 msec. Fast freezing also freezes every ce more

• Immersion Freezing of Suspended Particles and Cells for Cryo-Electron Microscopy

  INTRODUCTION Immersion freezing of thin aqueous specimens is an essential preparation technique for cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), aiming to preserve fragile biological structures such as molecules and cells in their hydrated environment for a close-to-native visualization. For su more

• Immersion Freezing of Cell Monolayers for Cryo-Electron Tomography

  INTRODUCTION Cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) is not limited to the visualization of suspended macromolecules in their native hydrated state. It can also be used to elucidate the molecular architecture of peripheral parts of adherent cells: After cultivation of the cells directly on more

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