CCAM Microscopy Facility
Fluorescent Probes
Companies & Background Information
Visit the following sites for detailed information regarding fluorescence and fluorescent dyes.
Invitrogen - Manufacturer of numerous fluorescent probes. Site contains a comprehensive handbook, Molecular Probes, on background and technical information regarding their products.
Molecular Probes Handbook
Fluorescence Tutorials from Molecular Probes
Zeiss - see Technical Information -> Objecitves and Filter Sets Interactive fluorophore database, fluorophore data and chart.
bio status Limited - solutions for imaging, cytometry and screening
Enzo - tools for cellular analysis.
UV Dye Alternatives
(based on information from Invitrogen)To our microscope users who use UV excited dyes such as DAPI or Hoechst as nuclear counterstains:
UV laser capabilities exsist only on the 780 microscope. This microscope is primarily reserved for live cell experiments that require the greater scanning control available on the 780. Experiments that rely exclusively on UV excited fluorophores will also have priority for the 780. However, there are now many choices for DNA binding dyes to use as nuclear counterstains that are available in virtually any excitation wavelength and emission color. Thus, we are requesting that those investigators performing confocal microscopy of fixed cells to switch to a visible wavelength DNA binding fluorophore and use the other microscopes whenever possible.
If you already have specimens prepared, you will of course be allowed to use the UV laser to image these specimens, however we will request that you try out some of the alternative DNA labels for future experiments.
Since the list of choices is a bit overwhelming, a few suggestions are given below. We strongly recommend visiting the Invitrogen web site (http://probes.invitrogen.com/) for additional information regarding DNA dyes.
