Learn how ZEISS LSM 980 with Airyscan 2 can help your research
Your Unique Confocal Experience for Fast and Gentle Multiplex Imaging
To analyze life with as little disturbance as possible, you must use low labeling density for your biological models. This requires excellent imaging performance combined with low phototoxicity and high speed. LSM 980, your platform for confocal 4D imaging, is optimized for simultaneous spectral detection of multiple weak labels with the highest light efficiency.
A Unique Confocal Experience
Enable lower laser power for your live cell samples
A light-efficient beam path with up to 36 simultaneous channels and full spectral flexibility up to the near infrared (NIR) range give you the perfect basis for multi-color experiments with living samples. On top of this, LSM Plus effortlessly improves all your experiments. The unique combination of spectral imaging with improved signal-to-noise ratio and resolution enables lower laser power for your live cell experiments.
Caption: Cos-7 cells imaged with LSM Plus, including the ZEISS NIR detector in channel mode.
Sample courtesy of U. Ziegler and J. Doehner, University of Zurich, ZMB, Switzerland.
Image with More Sensitivity
Yield super-resolution quantitative results
Airyscan 2 allows you to do more than any conventional LSM detector. Each of its 32 detector elements collects additional information, while all of them together gather even more light, yielding super-resolution quantitative results. By adding structural information with Joint Deconvolution (jDCV), you can push resolution even further. Or use the Multiplex modes to get super-resolution information up to 10 times faster.
Caption: Drosophila germarium. Imaged with ZEISS Airyscan 2 followed by Joint Deconvolution.
Courtesy of T. Jacobs, AG Luschnig, WWU Münster; with T. Zobel, Münster Imaging Network, Germany
Increase Your Productivity
Achieve reproducible results
ZEN microscopy software puts a wealth of helpers at your command to achieve reproducible results in the shortest possible time. AI Sample Finder helps you quickly find regions of interest, leaving more time for experiments. Smart Setup supports you in applying best imaging settings for your fluorescent labels. Direct Processing enables parallel acquisition and data processing. ZEN Connect keeps you on top of everything, both during imaging and later when sharing the whole story of your experiment.
Watch the video about using a Light-efficient Beam Path
LSM Plus
Improving your Confocal Experience
LSM Plus improves literally any confocal experiment with ease, independent of detection mode or emission range. Its linear Wiener filter deconvolution needs next to no interaction while still ensuring a reliable quantitative result. Just as in our time-tested Airyscan super-resolution processing, the underlying optical property information is adapted automatically based on objective lens, refractive index, and emission range.
Apply LSM Plus with no extra effort and benefit from:
- Enhanced signal to noise at high acquisition speed and low laser power – particularly useful for live cell imaging with low expression levels
- Improved resolution of spectral data with up to 36 channels in a single scan
- More spatial information and even greater resolution enhancement for bright samples that allow to close the pinhole of the LSM
- Integrated workflows to combine the advantages of LSM Plus with Airyscan super-resolution imaging
Caption: Drosophila egg chambers stained for F-actin (Phalloidin, magenta) and DE-Cadherin (cyan). Courtesy of T. Jacobs, AG Luschnig, WWU Münster; with T. Zobel, Münster Imaging Network, Germany
Airyscan 2 Schematic Beam Path
Airyscan 2
A Unique Combination of Super-resolution Imaging and High Sensitivity
Airyscan 2 is an area detector with 32 circularly arranged detection elements. Each of these acts as a small pinhole, contributing to super-resolution information, while the complete detector area collects more light than the standard confocal setting. This produces much greater light efficiency while capturing enhanced structural information.
32 Views Mean More Information
Powerful Deconvolution with Airyscan jDCV
Each of the 32 Airyscan detector elements has a slightly different view on the sample, providing additional spatial information that makes Joint Deconvolution possible. This reduces the distance that can be resolved between two points even further – down to 90 nm. Your super-resolution experiments will benefit from an improved separation of single or multiple labels.
"When we imaged endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria and saw their very fine details after applying Airyscan Joint Deconvolution, we thought this is just super cool. The new option could be integrated within our imaging protocols very easily. We were amazed at how quickly the images were processed, which helped us make decisions while we were still imaging."
– Dr. Kelly Subramanian, Post-Doctoral Scholar, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, UC Davis
The Multiplex Modes for Airyscan 2
Large Fields of View and Whole Sample Volumes in the Shortest Time
In Multiplex modes, Airyscan detector advantages are combined with adapted illumination and readout schemes, giving you a choice of different parallelization options. Multiplex modes use knowledge of the shape of the excitation laser spot and the location of single area detector elements to extract more spatial information, even during parallel pixel readout. This allows larger steps when sweeping the excitation laser over the field of view, improving acquisition speed. Capturing more spatial information in the pinhole plane allows final image reconstruction with better resolution than the acquisition sampling.
Multiplex Modes of ZEISS LSM 980
LSM 980 |
Airyscan SR |
Multiplex SR-4Y |
Multiplex SR-8Y |
Multiplex CO-8Y |
Parallelization |
1 |
4 |
8 |
8 |
Resolution |
120/120 |
140/140 |
120/160 |
Confocal or better |
Max. fps at max. field of view |
0.2 (Zoom 1.7) |
1.0 (Zoom 1) |
2.0 (Zoom 1) |
9.6 (Zoom 1) |
Antibody labelling, fine structures |
+++++ |
++++ |
+++ |
++ |
Antibody labelling, tiling |
++ |
++++ |
++++ |
+++ |
Live cell imaging |
++ |
+++ |
++++ |
+++++ |
Near Infrared (NIR) Imaging
Expand Your Spectral Range
Expanding your spectral range into the NIR allows you to use more labels in parallel. Visualize additional structures with more dyes in your multi-color experiments, with the Quasar and NIR detectors efficiently supporting spectral multiplexing experiments. NIR fluorescent labels are less phototoxic for living samples due to the longer wavelength. This allows you to investigate living samples for longer periods of time while limiting the influence of light. Additionally, light of longer wavelength ranges is less scattered by the sample tissue, increasing penetration depth.
For any of the advantages you pursue with NIR labels, the dual-channel NIR detector combines two different detector technologies (extended red GaAsP and GaAs) for optimal sensitivity up to 900 nm.
Simultaneous Spectral Imaging
Fast and Sensitive Separation of all Fluorescent Labels
To separate even highly overlapping signals or to remove autofluorescence, you can take a Lambda Scan using the complete detection range with up to 36 detectors, keeping both illumination and time required to a minimum. Improve spectral imaging along the complete wavelength range, including Online Fingerprinting, with LSM Plus.
The example shows a murine cremaster muscle, multi-color labeled with Hoechst (blue), Prox-1 Alexa488 (green), neutrophil cells Ly-GFP, PECAM1 Dylight549 (yellow), SMA Alexa568 (orange), VEGEF-R3 Alexa594 (red), platelets Dylight 649 (magenta). Acquired with 32-channel GaAsP detector using Online Fingerprinting.
Caption: Comparison of the improved SNR before and after LSM Plus processing. Courtesy of Dr. S. Volkery, MPI for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster, Germany
Energy diagram of two-photon microscopy
Multiphoton Microscopy with LSM 980 NLO
Non-invasive, Deep Tissue Imaging of Living or Fixed Samples
Multiphoton microscopy (two-photon microscopy, non-linear optical microscopy, NLO) is a preferred method for non-invasive and deep tissue imaging of living or fixed samples, particularly in neuroscience. Multiphoton microscopy capitalizes on the fact that longer wavelengths (600 – 1300 nm) are less absorbed and less scattered by tissues, travelling deeper into the sample while still forming a focal point. The required energy to excite a fluorescent dye is provided not by one photon but by two photons with half the energy each. The probability of two photons to reach the fluorophore at the same time is only sufficient at the focal point. That is why emission light originates from the focal plane and can be efficiently detected, generating an optical section while omitting a pinhole.
Caption: Energy diagram of two-photon microscopy
Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) principle.
Data Beyond Imaging
More Options for Your Research
Combining laser point illumination, linear scanning, and detectors that can capture the signal in photon counting mode make the LSM 980 more than an imaging device:
- Raster Image Correlation Spectroscopy (RICS)
- Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)
- Fluorescent Cross Correlation Spectroscopy (FCCS)
- Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)
- Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching (FRAP)
- Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM)
Caption: Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) principle. Trajectory of a fluorescent particle through the detection volume