My institute at the Center for Molecular Signaling (PMS) of the Medical Faculty (University of the Saarland/Germany) studies mechanisms of human cardiac diseases on the molecular, cellular, organ and organism level. For this we most often employ genetically encoded biosensors to image for example the subcellular concentration of calcium ions or kinase-mediated phosphorylation events or the trafficking of fluorescently labelled endogenous proteins. The unique combination of ultra-high-speed recording (several hundred frames/s) and instant super resolution without computation offered by VisiTech’s iSIM system enables us to investigate signaling processes with unprecedented spatio temporal resolution. Moreover, these measurements are possible at excitation levels that allow extended recording periods without considerable bleaching and phototoxicity associated with most other imaging approaches we also host in the lab.

The iSIM has been a cornerstone in our facility. It has been instrumental in discoveries we’ve made and added great value to the research that it has been used for. It is easy to use and delivers great results.

With our integrated setup built by VisiTech around the iSIM technology, we benefit from an ideal combination of the highest imaging speeds and image resolution required for modern biological imaging. Importantly, even users without prior microscopy experience achieve consistent results on an everyday basis, and samples can be labelled using standard techniques.

My lab, at the University of Texas at Austin, studies the molecular basis of cell polarity using C. elegans and mammalian systems. Live imaging of endogenously tagged proteins is one of the cornerstones of our research, and so we often face the challenge of seeing things that are small, fast-moving, not very bright, and highly sensitive to photo damage. The SIM meets this challenge better than any of the (many) other instruments we’ve tested; it allows us to see things we simply couldn’t see on spinning disk systems. The super-resolution performance of the SIM allows us to make movies we’re proud to put in our papers, while at the same time the instrument is stable and user-friendly enough to be used as a workhorse imaging system for our whole lab.