infocus #21 March 2011 Development and Testing of an Ultraviolet Light Monitor for Fluorescence Microscopy

Javier Eduardo Diaz-Zamboni and Víctor Hugo Casco show the development of a device and method to test and measure the flux variation in UV lamps and propose software to correct such fluctuations in quantitative microscopy studies.

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.66

Current quantitative analysis in fluorescence microscopy considers that in the image formation process of the microscope, the sample behaves as a fluorescent stable-emitter. However, it is very well known that the flux from ultraviolet lamps is variable throughout their useful life and as time passes, such variations are incremented in rate and amplitude. For this reason, it is crucial to consider systematically these variations in images when quantitative methods are required in modern microscopy. In this article, we show the development of a very simple device and method to test and measure these variations. We also propose software to correct such fluctuations in quantitative microscopy studies.

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Authors

Javier Eduardo Diaz-Zamboni

Javier Eduardo Diaz-Zamboni was born in Paraná, Argentina, in 1978. He received a bioengineering degree from the National University of Entre Ríos, in 2004. He was a pre-degree fellowship researcher at the Microscopy Laboratory at the National University of Entre Ríos, between 2002 and 2004. He joined the Microscopy Laboratory in 2005. He is currently a research assistant in the Microscopy Laboratory at the School of Engineering, National University of Entre Ríos, and a PhD student at the National University of the Litoral. His research is centred on microscopy image processing and analysis.

Víctor Hugo Casco

Victor Hugo Casco was born in Los Toldos, Argentina, in 1960. He received a biological sciences degree in 1986 and Doctoral degree in Biology in 1992 from the National University of La Pampa and National University of Cordoba respectively. From 1992 to 2007, Prof. Casco was the Microscopy Laboratory Director. Between 1996 and 1998, he undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Since 2007, he has been Full Professor of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the School of Engineering at the National University of Entre Rios. His research interest includes cardiac natriuretic peptides, cell adhesion molecules and modern microscopy technologies.