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ImageXpress Micro Widefield High Content Screening System

The ultimate combination of speed and flexibility in a turnkey solution that streamlines research and drug discovery in a fully integrated high content screening environment.

Built on over 10 years of automated imaging experience, the ImageXpress® Micro System captures research-quality images with the widest range (1X to 100X) of objective lenses available in an HCS system, enabling you to work at the resolution appropriate for your biology, including small organism, cellular events, or intracellular events. The system's best-in-class 100 nm resolution stages precisely locate and identify sub-cellular features, ensuring excellent X, Y, and Z positioning to simplify tracing individual cells during multi-day time-lapse experiments or mapping neuronal outgrowth across multiple tiled images.  

Cellular analysis is made easy with the setup wizard that allows any user in your laboratory to acquire and process preconfigured experiments through an intuitive interface. Industry-leading stage and focus control, coupled with a high-speed laser autofocus option, make the ImageXpress Micro System the fastest, most precise automated CCD imaging station available. Combined with mature software, the custom designed ImageXpress Micro Instrument outperforms automated microscopes built from off-the-shelf components, providing a robust high content screening (HCS) platform to address both research and drug discovery applications.

The modular design allows you to choose hardware options to investigate the biologically relevant conditions that influence cellular events. Live cell assays and long time-lapse experiments  are facilitated through the integrated environmental control and fluidics options.  To avoid chemical labels that may alter cellular behavior in sensitive, biologically relevant cells, label-free phase contrast imaging is enabled with the transmitted light option. Alternatively, enhance your decisions with the overlay of phase contrast and fluorescence images.  Addition of  the external excitation filter wheel with fast switching to the system allows for micro-plate based excitation ratiometric experiments like calcium imaging with Fura-2.


Learn how to change filter cubes inside the ImageXpress Micro System

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Learn how to adjust objective correction collar to accommodate for different plate bottom or slide thicknesses in the ImageXpress Micro System

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Features
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Software
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  • Fully automated 100 nm resolution voice coil driven stages provide positioning accuracy to capture intricate sub-cellular features as well as monitor long structures, such as neurons, across high resolution tiled or stitched images.  In addition, this robust stage minimizes X-Y stage jitter associated with stepper motors of low resolution stages often viewed during extended live-cell experiments

Watch Video

 Hela Cells Plated on 96-well plates and treated with 100 um Etoposide.  Each well of plate was visited before returning to first well. Watch the 30 hour movie to see an increase in the number of dead and apoptosing cells. Blue = Hoechst for all Nuclei; Red = Propidium Iodide for Dead Cells; Green = Nucview488 a fluorescence substrate for Caspase 3 and an apoptosis sensor.  Overlayed on a phase contrast image. 
  • Industry-leading autofocus option provides fast, reliable focusing with a dedicated 690 nm focus laser and ultra-fast sensors that will not bleach your sample.   The adaptive acquisition feature adjusts to sample heterogeneity, decreasing read times up to 5-fold, when configured to capture the desired number of cells before moving to the next well.  Easily define and apply Z offsets to overcome objective lens axial chromatic aberration between fluorophores.  Image auto-focus software option adapts to samples at variable positions above the well such as cells growing in biorelevant gels or on feeder layers.
  • Custom design for screening enables capturing 20,000 wells/day in a 384-well microplate assay with two-color, high-resolution images (e.g., Transfluor® beta-arrestin translocation assay).  Lower resolution or single color assays can be performed at close to 50,000 wells / day.
  • 4-position automated objective changer eliminates manual intervention to switch between pre-installed objectives.  In addition, regions of interest identified at low magnification can be automatically targeted and imaged at a high magnification.  This functionality is useful for slide scanning applications or imaging rare events within a well.  Learn more about targeted imaging. 
  • 1X - 100X objectives provide the widest selection of magnification of any HCS system, acquiring low resolution images for small organism measurements or object counting, to images for quantifying sub-cellular events. Research-grade air objectives, available up to 0.95 NA (numerical aperture), allow you to resolve detailed sub-cellular applications, such as measuring fluorescent changes in low abundant proteins.
  • Automated 5 position filter cube changer facilitates multiplex assays.  Combined with the automated objective changer, single experiments with up to five filter sets and four objectives can be performed with out user intervention.
  • 300 Watt xenon arc lamp combined with dye-specific filter cubes provides illumination from ultra-violet (Fura-2 calcium imaging) to far red (Cy-5 imaging), enabling a broad range of fluorescent assays where dye selection does not become limiting.

 

Mouse embryo sections  Blue = DAPI, Green = FITC, Red = TRITC, Orange = Cy5

 

  • Modular design expands the system's functionality to include transmitted light applications with unique phase optics, live cell imaging with environmental control, fluidics, and external filter wheel selection.  Learn more about the benefits of ImageXpress Micro Options.
  • Universal plate holder allows you to choose the slide or microplate format (6- to 1536-well) that works best for your assay without objectives constraints sometimes imposed by instrument vendors.  Acquire data from live or fixed samples placed in nearly any clear bottom plate, standard height, low profile, or low volume. Additionally, image from transwell plates for migration assays or 1 x 3 inch standard microscope slides when using the appropriate adapters.
  • Research mode includes compatibility with 1.3 NA oil objectives for very high resolution imaging, flexible MetaMorph tools, image streaming for ultra fast kinetic measurements, image tiling and stitching, Z-stacks, 3-D reconstruction, and compatibility with microscope slides.  Learn more about MetaXpress Software functionality.
  • Small footprint ideal for environments where space is precious.
  • Dedicated support team of service engineers, field applications specialists, and in house technical scientists.  We install your system, train you, and answer questions so you can start experiments quickly.  Learn more about the Cellular Imaging Software Courses that we offer. Integrated automation is achieved with the Thermo CRS CataLyst Express robotic plate handling system, enabling users to schedule multiple runs of one to three batches of 15 plates. The batches can also be run with varying exposure times, magnifications, or other acquisition parameters. Alternatively, a generic external control module allows integration with a number of third-party plate handling solutions for 24/7 automation.
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