New! LSM 510 META

A new META detector is here at the W. M. KeckCenter. For most of us it has been difficult to separate the emissions of fluorescence dyes and fluorescent proteins with a very close emission peak in a specimen. The META is capable of acquiring whole emission signal for every single pixel of an image on a 32-channel PMT (lambda stack) and LSM 510 software carries out Linear Unmixing to separate emission spectra unique to each fluorochrome. For example, the META can clearly separate GFP and FITC. We now have flexibility designing our experiments!

In case of spinal cord injury, often activated macrophages are the source of autofluorescence at the injury site. Because of the wide range of emission spectra, separation of background or autofluorescence is necessary to see immunostaining of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs, labeled with Alexa 568) using reference spectra and the linear unmixing algorithm (Zeiss LSM software).