Azure Biosystems Sapphire FL Biomolecular Imager for fluorescence imaging

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Azure Biosystems has announced the Sapphire FL Biomolecular Imager for fluorescent imaging. The imager’s flexibility supports a wide range of applications, including in-gel imaging, Southern and Western blots, membrane arrays, in-cell Westerns, autoradiography, model organism imaging and more. Users can choose to add a chemiluminescence module to expand the Sapphire FL’s compatibility to include the ability to image chemiluminescent samples.

The groundbreaking imaging system introduces a patent-pending design for a lengthy compatible application list. Interchangeable and customisable laser and filter modules allow the user to choose the laser-filter pairs best suited to their research, or even create their own laser-filter pairs as needed.

The system supports multicolour visible and NIR fluorescence, as well as phosphor imaging. Fluorescence imaging is possible with excitation wavelengths between 365 and 850 nm and emission wavelengths between 380 and 900 nm, which covers a range of fluorescent labels for flexibility in experimental design.

The introduction of the channel customisation makes the instrument suitable for labs that need 1- or 2-colour imaging, while its flexibility will appeal to core labs that need flexibility in imaging size and height and the ability to conduct multicolour (more than 2-colour) imaging of their samples. Custom lasers and filters are available upon request, so no research will be constrained by instrumental limitations.

The product has the same large imaging area (25 x 25 cm) as its precursor, the Sapphire, and upgraded high-resolution imaging abilities down to 5 µm. In addition to flat samples such as gels, membranes and slides, the Sapphire FL images sample with depth. 4 cm clearance above the imaging platform makes it compatible with petri dishes and multi-well plates, as well as biological samples such as plants, tissues and small experimental animals. Another feature is five built-in anaesthesia ports for imaging live animals.

The familiar wide linear dynamic range makes the instrument suitable for quantitative experiments, such as multicolour Western blots. The Sapphire FL’s Extended Dynamic Range (EDR) function enables capture of 24-bit data for an even more powerful ability to image low- and high-intensity bands in a single image.

An adjustable Z-plane allows collection of image stacks. It also gives control of the focal plane from 1 mm below the glass surface to 6 mm above the surface to capture the ideal image of a thick sample.