Nanolive imaging

A patented product & technology
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Nanolive’s patented technology

A microscopes’ resolution depends on its capacity to collect diffracted light, the bigger this aperture, the clearer the view. With our rotating light source we illuminate the sample from many directions and with a technique called interferometry, we can combine the signals “seen” by hundreds of illumination angles, so that the microscope effectively works together like one giant aperture. As a result, this allows us to compute (no ocular, no eyepieces) a signal with sub-cellular resolution of living cells and thanks to interferometry we do not require any chemical markers and we can compute a “digital cell reconstruction in 3D” – based upon the cell’s inherent physical properties.

How does the 3D Cell Explorer produce cell images with better than 200 nm lateral resolution?

Non-invasive optical nanoscopy can achieve such a lateral resolution by using a quasi-2π-holographic detection scheme and complex deconvolution. The spatial frequencies of the imaged cell do not make any sense to the human eye. But these SCATTERED frequencies are converted into a hologram and synthesize a bandpass which has a resolution DOUBLE the one normally available.

Miochondria imaged with live cell imaging tool from Nanolive
2% PFA

What does fixation do to your cells’ morphology?

Since fixation aims to provide a snapshot of a living situation, we visualized the process of fixing living samples with PFA using Nanolive’s 3D Cell Explorer. We conclude that cell structures are affected by the fixation process.

What does fixation do to your cells’ morphology?

Since fixation aims to provide a snapshot of a living situation, we visualized the process of fixing living samples with PFA using Nanolive’s 3D Cell Explorer. We conclude that cell structures are affected by the fixation process.

2% PFA

Overcoming phototoxicity

Very few studies have been highlighting or discussing the artifacts arising from phototoxicity during live cell imaging. With Nanolive imaging, a low-power laser beam gets phase-shifted when sent through samples, this phase shift is then used to generate 3D-images of refractive indices of the observed samples. This way this technology gets rid of invasive fluorescent markers, while using low energy exposure regimes is a clear added value that makes it well suited to observe living samples, when compared to epifluorescence imaging. Moreno’s et al results raised the question of how much of our knowledge, particularly about mitochondria, may have been biased by artifacts induced by fluorescence imaging.

Technical Comparison

Please scroll the table right to see the full comparison

Properties nanolive signet Standard Fluorescence Super resolution Fluorescence Phase imaging Electrical impedance SEM, AFM
      Preparation      
Time time_secs time_hour time_hour time_secs time_secs time_days
Simplicity green line simplicity2_small simplicity2_small green line simplicity2_small simplicity3_small
Cost green_money_icon Icons_50px_02-03 Icons_50px_02-03 green_money_icon Icons_50px_02-03 Icons_50px_02-02
Cell condition happy_face Icons_50px_02-07 Icons_50px_02-07 happy_face happy_face Icons_50px_02-06
      Observation      
Temporal sampling time_secs time_min time_min time_secs time_secs time_min
Live Cell Imaging checkmark_green Icons_50px_03-07 Icons_50px_03-07 checkmark_green checkmark_green Icons_50px_03-07
Training-free checkmark_green Icons_50px_03-07 Icons_50px_03-07 Icons_50px_03-03 Icons_50px_03-03 Icons_50px_03-07
Cellular health happy_face Icons_50px_02-07 Icons_50px_02-07 happy_face happy_face Icons_50px_02-06
      Result      
 Lateral Resolution Below 200nm Down to 250nm Down to 50nm 400 – 1000nm No Image  5-10nm
Image Dimensionality 3d_cube_green Icons_50px_04-03 3d_cube_green Icons_50px_03-06 Icons_50px_04-02 3d_cube_green
Quantitative checkmark_green Icons_50px_03-07 Icons_50px_03-07 Icons_50px_03-03 checkmark_green Icons_50px_03-03
Comprehensive green_head_idea Icons_50px_04-04 Icons_50px_04-04 Icons_50px_04-04 Icons_50px_04-04 green_head_idea
      Costs      
Price (euro) euro_green Icons_50px_02-03 Icons_50px_02-04 euro_green Icons_50px_02-04

Nanolive imaging and analysis platforms

Swiss high-precision imaging and analysis platforms that look instantly inside label-free living cells in 3D

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CX-A

Automated live cell imaging and analysis: a unique walk-away solution for long-term live cell imaging of single cells and cell populations

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3D CELL EXPLORER-fluo

Multimodal Complete Solution: combine high quality non-invasive 4D live cell imaging with fluorescence

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3D Cell Explorer front view

3D CELL EXPLORER

Budget-friendly, easy-to-use, compact solution for high quality non-invasive 4D live cell imaging

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