News and Press Releases

July 17, 2020

Video: Remote installation of a MicroTime 200 microscope

Our support team guides the customer through every step of installation

In unusual times, one devises innovative ideas. Prof. Kirk Schanze from the University of Texas at San Antonio (USA) recently received his time-resolved fluorescence microscope MicroTime 200. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, our engineer could not perform the customary on site installation process. Our solution? Build up a system in both Berlin and San Antonio at the same time and guide the Texan team through every step of installation by using video conferencing tools. Many thanks to Prof. Schanze and his team for working with us to get the system up and running in these challenging times! The installation was a great success and we are looking forward to the new insights the Schanze Lab will gain from investigating the interaction of light with small molecules, polymers, and materials with the MicroTime 200.

Watch the highlights of the installation on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1aZD1g9qzc

If you are interested in seeing our systems in action, contact us to arrange a virtual visit in our application lab and carry out real-world experiments: remote demos

July 6, 2020

Customer Andrea Soranno studies SARS-CoV-2 virus with MicroTime 200

A preprint with first results is now available

Andrea Soranno from the Washington University in St. Louis and colleagues applied their expertise in single molecule FRET (smFRET) and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) to the study of SARS-CoV-2 viruses. They used their time-resolved fluorescence MicroTime 200 to characterize the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein, which is responsible for viral genome packaging. The flexible and dynamic N protein, which contains three intrinsically disordered domains, undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation with RNA, and compacts long RNA molecules. Therefore, compounds that interfere with N protein function or modulate phase separation may disrupt viral assembly, which would make them candidate drugs for COVID-19.

The group shared their insights in a preprint on bioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.17.158121v1

Fluorescence microscope MicroTime 200: product website

July 1, 2020

Second round of free webinars with new topics

From July to August, we host live sessions every week

In spring we held our first series of free webinars. The 9 webinars on different topics like materials science, picosecond pulsed lasers, time-resolved fluorescence microscopy, Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM), scanning Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy, and environmental sensing with FLIM were greatly appreciated by more than 800 participants.
Our specialists invite you now to a second round of webinars. From July to August, we host live sessions every week that highlight the power of optoelectronical measurements and how they can help you in your everyday research challenges. The line-up includes several new topics as well as repeats of many well-liked subjects from the first round. So if you missed out on the first series, this is your chance to experience it live!

Topics and dates: www.picoquant.com/webinars

June 25, 2020

User‐friendly single‐photon source operating at telecom wavelengths

PicoQuant developed the dedicated picosecond pulsed diode laser

A user‐friendly, fiber‐coupled, single‐photon source operating at telecom wavelengths is presented on the latest cover of "Advanced Quantum Technologies". This single-photon source is the result of a joint German-Polish project ("FI-SEQUR") with partners Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Maria Curie Sklodowska University Lublin, Fibrain Sp. z o.o, JCMwave GmbH and PicoQuant. In this project, PicoQuant has developed a dedicated picosecond pulsed diode laser to efficiently excite a quantum dot that launches single photons at a wavelength of 1.3 µm directly into a single‐mode optical fiber. The whole arrangement is integrated into a 19ʺ compatible housing to enable stand‐alone operation by cooling via a compact Stirling cryocooler. The realized source delivers single photons with a multiphoton events probability as low as 0.15 and a single‐photon emission rate of up to 73 kHz into a standard telecom single‐mode fiber.

Paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/qute.202000018
PicoQuant's pulsed diode lasers: https://www.picoquant.com/products/category/pulsed-lasers-and-leds
 

June 19, 2020

Study on membrane asymmetry

Measured with a Nikon A1 confocal equipped with PicoQuant´s LSM upgrade kit

Recently Ilya Levental, Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston toghether with his coworkers published an impressive study in Nature Chemical Biology in which FLIM and FCS, combined with a smart staining protocol and atomistic simulations, shed light on the structural asymmetry of plasma membranes. FLIM of the lipid packing reporter dye Di4, which enables leaflet-selective staining of the plasma membrane, revealed that the outer leaflet is more tightly packed. Correspondingly, FCS diffusion measurements of fluorescent proteins anchored either to the outer or inner leaflet were consistent with computational predictions that inner leaflet components diffuse faster. For this work, they used their Nikon A1 confocal equipped with PicoQuant´s LSM upgrade kit.

Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41589-020-0529-6
PicoQuant's LSM upgrade kit: product website