Lluis Torner, ICFO Director and Christoph Thumser, Sales Director for Life Science Research EMEA celebrating the new agreement with members of their teams.
This new collaboration sees the installation of the latest generation in nanoscopy systems from Leica Microsystems at the ICFO – the Leica microscopy system TCS SP8 STED 3X. Through the collaboration, Leica Microsystems and ICFO will work together to further develop the technology behind nanoscopy, find new application in biomedicine and biophysics, and to offer access to nanoscopy to a wide community of researchers across Europe, including members of the Euro-BioImaging, Corbel European and LaserLab research infrastructure programs.
Nanoscopy overcomes earlier limits of optical microscopy by allowing to resolve and observe structures down to just a few nanometers in size with methods like STED. So Nanoscopy became a key investigative tool in the most important medical research of today, including research into neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimers. In Barcelona, local researchers of the ICFO already use Leica Microsystems nanoscopy systems for example, in cooperation with the Bellvitge Hospital and the University of Barcelona to study retinal degeneration, and the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona study beta-amyloid plaques and their effects on Alzheimer’s disease.
This three-year R&D collaboration expects to bring fruitful results within the European biomedical research community. As Pablo Loza, ICFO researcher and leader of the SLN facility at ICFO comments, “We are thrilled with the addition of this new Leica state-of-the-art microscope and the new collaboration agreement set forward with Leica Microsystems R&D team. We are sure the new TCS SP8 STED 3X, combined with all other instruments within our SLN facility at ICFO, will produce a qualitative jump on today’s research and applications and will enable us to delve into a new realm of novel biomedical applications that we are yet to fathom”.
Christoph Thumser, Sales Director for Life Science Research EMEA stated “Leica Microsystems are delighted to embark on this collaboration with the ICFO. We are confident that the combination of ICFO’s expertise in photonics and optical technology and Leica Microsystems strengths in advanced imaging solutions will lead to great developments in microscopy. The ICFO’s strong links to the imaging community through its association with CORBEL and Eurobioimaging will also benefit Leica Microsystems. Due to the SLN’s plan to offer open access to the Leica microscopy system TCS SP8 STED 3X, we will learn a great deal about how nanoscopy is used today and how it should develop into the future.