Nov 29 2007
Nikon Instruments, Inc. today announced the launch of the latest version of its industry-leading microscopy acquisition and analysis software -- NIS-Elements. When paired with Nikon's new Eclipse Ti inverted microscope series, NIS-Elements' latest version enables exceptional image data throughput and multi-dimensional image capture routines that advance productivity and minimize photobleaching and cell phototoxicity.
The fully-integrated system, which is ideal for high-end research and live-cell imaging, enables extremely fast image sequence control and acquisition through faster motorized components that are intelligently managed in parallel through the NIS-Elements software.
All aspects of the Ti microscope system are seamlessly combined through the software, pulling the advanced functionality and extremely fast device speed of the Ti together with innovative acquisition controls and image analysis power, which are tightly integrated to further improve the Ti's high-speed imaging capabilities. This allows diverse image acquisition and analysis methods with techniques such as FRET, FRAP, Colocalization, 2-D Object Tracking, Ratio analysis with integrated calcium calibrations, Kymograph displays and photo-activation routines.
"The advancements with the latest version of NIS-Elements deliver a level of microscope system integration previously unheard of in the industry," said Stan Schwartz, vice president, Nikon Instruments, Inc. "Our goal is to further position NIS-Elements software as the industry's premier platform for microscopy imaging analysis solutions."
Built to enhance speed and simplify the imaging and data gathering process, NIS-Elements offers the most flexible experimental design tools in the industry, allowing reliable and repeatable data generation. With options for camera settings, timing intervals, device parameters and seamless external device triggering, NIS-Elements provides for fully automated and precise image acquisition.
In addition, it manages complete bi-directional control of all Ti-E motorized components including the piezo Z axis fast focusing device, the Ti-E's standard internal closed loop, motorized Z axis focusing functions, Nikon's unique motorized stages, shutters, filter turrets and filter wheels. NIS-Elements can also store and control the motorized TIRF angle adjustments and quickly change the light path into preset configurations for multi-wavelength TIRF and widefield microscopy imaging.
By coupling NIS-Elements with Nikon's new motorized stage, users can perform fully-automated, high-speed, multi-point imaging of a large variety of specimen slides and live cell culture vessels, including 96 well plates. Additionally, NIS-Elements displays a visual representation of multi-well stage coordinates and offers easy methods to store, retrieve and acquire data for thousands of positions or large areas of view.
NIS-Elements makes it possible to capture, display, analyze and export data generated from 6-D datasets. Volume and tiled views, image counts, live graphing and intensity information are available during acquisition; and, as the quantity and complexity of image datasets increase, NIS-Elements adds the necessary intuitive workflow and controls for data extraction, management and export.