The DeltaVision OMX system is based on the OMX microscopy system developed by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and exclusively licensed to Applied Precision. The DeltaVision|OMX system solves two fundamental limitations that have frustrated scientists, spatial and temporal resolution. DeltaVision OMX overcomes spatial resolution limits by using 3D-SIM true structured illumination technology invented by a UCSF team led by Drs. Sedat, Agard, and Gustafsson that doubles the optical resolution of light microscope. Equally important, DeltaVision|OMX also overcomes speed limitations for cellular imaging by using novel electronics and optics developed by the same team at UCSF.
Comparison of a DeltaVision OMX super resolution image and a immunogold TEM micrograph.
(PCNA localization in CHO cell nuclei. Used with permission from Andrew Belmont,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.)
In conventional microscope systems, image resolution is limited by the angle of light that can successfully traverse the light path and enter the objective lens. While objectives can be built with very high numerical apertures, a limit is reached when light can no longer cross the interfaces between different refractive indices. At this point, Brewster�s angle is achieved and additional light and information (resolution) do not make it into the objective lens. This angle ultimately limits the resolution of all microscope systems. Once this limit is reached, a system is said to be diffraction limited. Super-Resolution is loosely defined as the ability for an imaging system to exceed this limit driven by physics and the wavelength of light and provide resolutions that are significantly better than the diffraction limit described above.
Applied Precision has led the way over the past fifteen years in empowering scientists to fully exploit this limit with image restoration (deconvolution) microscopy. The DeltaVision Core and personalDV Microscopy Systems improve resolution by approx 15-20% and contrast ten fold. In recent years, new methods have been developed to surpass the diffraction limit. These methods allow precise visualization and measurement of features that are less than one-half of the size of those seen with conventional microscopy. This improvement of resolution by a factor of 2 or more is how Applied Precision defines super-resolution microscopy.
Throughout 2008, Applied Precision has delivered on the DeltaVision OMX promise by designing building, installing and demonstrating the full power of DeltaVision OMX in labs throughout the world. World renowned institutions including the University of California, Davis, the Oxford University, the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Dundee, the University of Illinois, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (January 2009) have participated in the OMX V2 early adopters program. In every case, Applied Precision has delivered super-resolution resolution and high-speed imaging performance.
