Upgrade Your Leica TCS SP / SP2 MP for Lifetime Imaging

Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM) has become a new powerful method to investigate molecular interactions, metabolic reactions and energy transfer in cells and subcellular structures. These effects cause changes in the fluorescence quantum efficiency and thus in the fluorescence lifetime. Since the fluorescence lifetime does not depend on the unknown dye concentration it is a direct measure for the quantum efficiency. It therefore gives a more direct access to the investigated effects than the fluorescence intensity. Furthermore, the fluorescence lifetime can be used to separate the fluorescence of different luminophores in the cells if the components cannot be distinguished by their fluorescence spectra.

Recording time-resolved fluorescence images can be achieved by combining the Leica TCS SP2 Laser Scanning Microscope with Ti:Sa laser excitation and a new Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) Imaging technique introduced by Becker & Hickl.

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