Company Announcements

For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2018, ZEISS sales rose 8.8%, 12% on a constant currency basis, to €5.817 billion ($6.686 billion). Sales for the Industrial Quality & Research division, which consists of metrology and microscopy solutions, grew 0.7%, 4% in constant currency, to make up 27% of revenues. In constant currency, microscopy sales were flat.

The Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) announced in January a “labs@location” partnership agreement between its Electron Microscopy Core Facility and ZEISS for brain research. MPFI will have access to ZEISS technology before it is commercially available. MPFI is the third US institution to earn the labs@location designation. The first piece of equipment made available to MPFI scientists is known as the “Focal Charge Compensation module (FCC),” which is integrated onto a Serial Block Face SEM system. The parties have collaborated since 2012.

In December 2018, 3i (Intelligent Imaging Innovations), a provider of advanced multimodal microscopy systems, entered into a strategic partnership with DRVISION Technologies to deliver AI-enabled software for visualization, exploration and analysis of microscopy images of virtually any size. The partnership enables 3i to market and sell DRVISION’s Aivia, while DRVISION will further expand its support for SLD (SlideBook) files to ensure performance 3i system users.

In January, Olympus announced a co-development partnership with the University of Southern California (USC), the USC-Olympus Innovation Partnership in Multiscale Bioimaging, for the goal of advancing multiscale research into cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment through precision medicine. The partnership involves USC’s Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine and Translational Imaging Center.

In January, Oxford Instruments Asylum Research opened a sales and support office to serve the eastern US. The office is collocated at Oxford Instruments’ US headquarters in Concord, Massachusetts.

In February, the University of California San Diego and Leica Microsystems established the Leica Microsystems Center of Excellence. The Center features confocal microscopy technology from Leica, including FALCON fast lifetime contrast fluorescence imaging, as well as STED (stimulated emission depletion), multiphoton and confocal super-resolution microscopy systems.

Product Introductions

In December 2018, ZEISS introduced the ZEISS Elyra 7 with Lattice SIM (structured illumination microscopy), a new flexible platform for fast and gentle 3D super-resolution microscopy. It enables fast imaging of 3D volumes at up to 120 nm laterally. The ZEISS Elyra 7 can be expanded with single-molecule localization microscopy techniques.

In January, ZEISS released the ZEISS Xradia 610 and 620 Versa X-ray microscopes for x-ray computed tomography, two new models in its ZEISS Xradia Versa family. They are designed for submicro-resolution imaging of intact samples.

In January, DeNovix introduced the CellDrop Automated Cell Counter, the first instrument to incorporate its DirectPipette Technology, removing the need for expensive, environmentally damaging plastic slides. It allows measurements across a range of cell densities, 7×10² to 4×10⁷ cells, without the need for dilution or concentration. CellDrop is available in dual-fluorescence and brightfield or brightfield-only models.

JEOL Japan launched in December 2018 the JEM-ACE200F high-throughput TEM. It can work with pre-programmed modes for unattended operation. The annual sales target is 30 units.

Bruker launched in January the JPK NanoWizard ULTRA Speed 2 AFM system for life science bioimaging. It features a scanning speed of 10 frames per second and a new, workflow-based software graphical user interface.

In February, Bruker introduced the SKYSCAN 1273 3D x-ray microscopy based on micro-computed tomography technology. Samples of up to 500 mm length, 300 mm diameter and a maximum weight of 20 kg can be investigated.

CELLINK released in February the CellCyte X live-cell microscope for use in an incubator. It features a software-based link to the company’s bioprinting system.

In February, Thermo Fisher Scientific launched the automated Invitrogen EVOS M7000 fluorescence microscope featuring a high-end camera and more powerful computer. The EVOS M7000 microscope builds on the strengths of its predecessors, the EVOS FL Auto and FL Auto 2 cell imaging systems, with an upgraded XE3 computer and a Quadro graphics card to significantly reduce time acquiring and saving images

Sales and Orders of Note

In December 2018, the German Research Foundation (DFG) announced the funding of three high-performance super-resolution microscopes from Abberior Instruments, two MINFLUX nanoscopes and an intravital STED microscope equipped with DyMIN (live-cell STED with Dynamic Minimum), as part of the major instrumentation initiative.

Confocal.nl announced in December 2018 that the Luxemburg Center for Systems Biomedicine is utilizing its Re-scan confocal microscope for its research into neurodegenerative disorders.

In January, Confocal.nl announced that the ETH Zurich’s Scientific Center for Optical and Electron Microscopy selected its Re-scan confocal microscopy module for a STORM (stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) system.

In January, Czech Republic–based Charles University Centre of Advanced Materials installed the JEOL JEM-NEOARM 200 TEM in its new electron microscopy lab.