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Environmental Control
For long-term imaging of some samples the environment must be tightly controlled, including temperature, humidity, and gas concentrations (e.g. CO2).
Temperature can either be controlled locally around the sample or the bulk of the microscope can be enclosed and kept at a constant temperature. ASI makes an incubator enclosure that fits around the entire diSPIM on RAMM. Incubator boxes for diSPIM on other inverted microscopes are available from by 3rd parties. Tokai Hit makes an insert with objective heaters for temperature control without requiring an enclosure, description here .
Figure 1: Model of a diSPIM on RAMM in incubator enclosure.
Figure 2: Photo of a diSPIM on RAMM in incubator enclosure.
Various manufacturers make environmental control equipment that can be connected to the enclosure. Generally they control temperature, humidity, and CO2. Temperature is usually controlled for the entire incubator enclosure, and CO2/humidity are controlled locally near the sample. Okolab makes an insert “H201-ASI-DISPIM” for CO2/humidity control which accommodates the typical diSPIM sample chamber (stainless steel, 24×50 mm coverslip) and provides a local environment for gas and humidity control; drawings here.
Figure 3: Full diSPIM system installed in a lab (ca. summer 2014) including air table, laser, computer, environmental control, Tiger controller, etc.
