Tomocube HT-X1 Holotomography Platform
The Tomocube HT-X1 optical microscope uses incoherent light to generate holographic images of un-labelled live cells. This ground-breaking technology unlocks label-free 3D and 4D live cell imaging on standard imaging plates for higher-throughput and automated screening applications thanks to its ability to image 24, 12 and 6 well plate formats, large field-of-view, laser autofocus system, and a very high performance 0.95NA objective. Core imaging facilities will benefit from the integrated gassed incubator for long-term, time-lapse studies and the software-driven approach, allowing multiple users to access its performance simply and quickly through GUI, TomoStudio X.
The HT-X1 holotomograpghy microscope uses optical diffraction technology (ODT) to produce morphological, mechanical, and chemical properties of individual living cells through the 3D refractive index (RI) tomograms quickly and simply without any sample preparation, and molecular specificity information through fluorescence imaging.
The Tomocube HT-X1 uses a conventional single-beam white light LED instead of a laser light source. Instead of rotating the laser beam to illuminate the sample at various incidence angles it illuminates the sample with various beam patterns specifically designed to retrieve the refractive index and captures a sequence of holograms from different positions.This single-beam technique simplifies the imaging process by eliminating the need for background calibration and allowing imaging in confluent samples without an increase in light intensity. As well as being easily combined with complementary imaging modalities, it is mechanically more stable and less sensitive to speckle noise for high contrast imaging.
Utilising a 450 nm LED light source for transmitted light together with a customisable 5-channel fluorescence filter engine, with any 3 of the channels being captured for overlaying. The large, motorized stage will easily accommodate standard 35mm imaging dishes in the integrated incubator, which is equipped with a sealing lid to allow gassing and combines with a motorized laser-powered autofocus module for accurate and repeatable monitoring of locations during long-term studies.
A 40x 0.95 NA air objective lens allows rapid imaging of multiple locations with a lateral resolution of 156 nm. The extremely high numerical aperture also allows more illumination for fluorescence imaging while the large 160µm x 160µm field-of-view allows rapid and easy imaging of multiple locations.