WiScan® Hermes High Content Imaging System with Oil Immersion

Oil immersion objectives in automated microscopy? – Now you can!

Up until now, oil immersion objectives have been off-limits for automated microscopy, and for high-content screening in particular, because of the required user intervention to add oil while scanning a sample. Additionally, just the right amount of oil must remain between the objective and the sample when automatically scanning across it. Lastly, the index of refraction matching that enhances image resolution and brightness makes autofocusing more challenging.

IDEA Bio-Medical recognised these challenges to automated microscopy, but also the benefits that it could bring to the life-sciences research community. Relying on decades-long experience in many fields of ODM & OEM engineering, they have created a unique and fully automated technology that precisely adds immersion oil only when needed. Such precision prevents excess oil from collecting and dripping from the bottom of a sample, as well as a lack of oil during a scan.

The autofocus mechanism is fully compatible with immersion oil, enabling clear and robust imaging. And cleaning is a snap, thanks to the quick-snap objective exchange technology, making it easy to take objectives out of the microscope.

Now, for the first time, ahigh-content imaging system can utilise oil immersion objectives for automating high-resolution cell biology applications. Samples in a multi-well plate format can be scanned in their entirety, unsupervised and with no user intervention. The system can accommodate a variety of multi-well plates and sample formats and offers environmental control for live cell assays.

Utilising high NA oil objectives also enables fully automated super-resolution imaging.

Applications: