High throughput for better statistics and workflow efficiency
Efficiently study next-generation disease models by automating your 3D cell culture assays with THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Assay. This solution allows for high-speed imaging of large sample volumes, including lung organoids. Complex experiments are made easier with automation, minimizing user interaction need.
The outcome is:
- precise and reliable data in less time
- higher throughput
- better statistics and results
Find the THUNDER Imager that’s right for you
Whether you are looking for a dedicated high-end imaging system that excels in a given application, or a versatile solution for a lab running different assays with various samples, we’ve got you covered.
With a THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Assay, you have these advantages:
- Immediate blur removal that helps you visualize more intracellular details
- More utilizable depth with the widefield approach
- Reliable quantification
- Ready to use for your particular workflow analysis
- The possibility of observing your specimens in plastic bottom dishes makes your workflow more efficient
- Capacity to detect low signals of molecules with a high QE camera
- Low bleaching and low sample perturbance with a widefield approach and precisely timed LED illumination
- Accurate live cell imaging experimentation allows tracking of fast cell movements
- Low phototoxicity keep sensitive cell culture alive, even in long-term experiments
- Speed up your live-cell imaging workflow up to automated quantification and analysis
Optimal physiological conditions – a minimum light exposure
In 3D cell culture, observing the cells’ true physiology is crucial to obtain meaningful results. To achieve this, optimizing the experimental conditions by using the lowest light intensity and shortest exposure times possible is recommended. THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Assay is designed to meet these demands. It features a high-end LED source with a small bandwidth optimized for excitation. The sensitive high-end sCMOS camera can capture meaningful image information even with low illumination and short exposure times, thanks to its quantum efficiency of up to 82%. To further minimize the exposure of the sample to light, illumination is limited to the actual recording time, and the camera shutter is synchronized with the high-speed (20 µs switching time) Lumencor LED light source to minimize photobleaching.
Keep the right environment while observing your live cell cultures
The THUNDER Imager Live Cell provides everything necessary to maintain your cells naturally. The incubator maintains optimal physiological conditions for living cell cultures, including system stability, humidity, temperature, and carbon dioxide levels (pH value). With the help of the water immersion micro-dispenser, you can use a water-immersion objective for multiwell workflows, even during long-term experiments. Water immersion objectives allow for increased light collection, resulting in higher contrast and resolution when acquiring cell images.
Master time-lapse multi-position experiments: tracking cell changes
The THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Assay is excellent for conducting 3D cell culture multiwell experiments. It offers a combination of speed and reliability that ensures accurate tracking of spheroids and organoids’ growth and development, resulting in excellent results.
Accurate time-lapse multi-position experiments and tracking of cell changes are achieved with this THUNDER Imager due to:
- Reliable drift correction with the Adaptive Focus Control (AFC)
- Software autofocus that compensates for changes in specimen position
- Reproducible Z-positioning with a precision of up to 20 nm (closed-loop focus)
The new Quantum Stage allows for faster collection of data points in less time. It moves quickly and precisely, reaching up to 10 positions per second. Thanks to its stability without any vibration, it boasts exceptional repeatability with a deviation of less than ±0.25 µm.
Routine, reliable data acquisition
The THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Assay allows for accurate and reliable image data acquisition, focusing on live cells at all times. Live cell imaging can be difficult due to factors such as drift, changes in morphology or cell growth. Drift can be caused by vibrations, mechanical creep or temperature fluctuations, which can significantly impact the reliability of acquired image data. However, with the Adaptive Focus Control (AFC), closed-loop focus, and software autofocus, the THUNDER Imager Live Cell ensures that focus is maintained for multi-well experiments, providing reliable results.
Clarity and speed for sensitive sample imaging
Experience exceptional signal-to-background separation for dynamic cell surface processes by combining THUNDER’s out-of-focus blur removal with TIRF’s benefits. The two videos presented depict ins-1 cells that express human pro-insulin with GFP-GRINCH. When KCL is added to the cell culture, the insulin-producing cells depolarize and fuse insulin residues into the plasma membrane. Achieve superior clarity, speed, and imaging parameter control for your delicate samples with the THUNDER Imager Live Cell in conjunction with TIRF.
Image at the Speed of Life – Cellular processes
Life is fast, especially for a cell. Most modern live cell imaging experiments demand high-speed systems.
THUNDER Imager Live Cell gives you the power of highly sensitive sCMOS camera-based fluorescence systems working with full frames in one shot.
In combination with high sensitivity, THUNDER Imager Live Cell allows you to capture data at up to 90 frames per second, helping you to observe fast cellular events. It captures blur-free image data quickly, even deep inside a thick 3D cell cluster. Thanks to fast-switching external filter wheels, you can stay on top of fast processes even during multiple emission wavelength experiments (< 27 ms).