New microscope works inside laboratory incubators

ioLight is pleased to announce the launch of our new inverted microscope for use inside incubators.

The CO₂ incubator is used in most bio labs to grow cells, tissues and embryos. CO₂ is used to exclude oxygen and the temperature is controlled at 37°C or 98°F to emulate in vivo conditions. The new ioLight product is sealed against this atmosphere and can be left inside the incubator for the duration of the experiment. ioLight’s wireless connection allows researchers to monitor the progress of their experiment without opening the chamber door and disturbing experimental conditions, reducing experimental errors.

The new release of ioLight’s inverted microscope features a new top illuminator with normal bright field, low NA and dark field illumination modes programmable from the free app or web browser. The height of the illuminator has been increased to accommodate 40mm flasks and well plates as well as Petri dishes and slides. The new glass optical system delivers the same crystal clear 1 micron resolution as our field microscopes.

ioLight’s folding field microscopes have been used in the Amazon Rainforest, Antarctica and even on Mount Everest. The same high resolution, compact and robust designs are used for the inverted microscope. ioLight’s CEO Andrew Monk says “we are really excited about this microscope, which deploys the world’s toughest portable microscope in laboratories too.” He continues “space is often at a premium inside laboratory experiments and not many microscopes are tough enough to survive the warm, humid and acidic atmosphere inside a CO₂ incubator. This microscope brings ioLight out of the jungles, mountains and frozen lands where we normally work and into the laboratory.”

The ioLight inverted microscope saves its images onto your tablet or computer in standard file formats that can be shared easily and analysed using your favourite generic image processing software. True to its ioLight roots, the inverted microscope still has a battery so it is perfect for marine biologists to use at the water’s edge too.