Confocal.nl

the Dutch microscopy company

Farewell 2017, hello 2018!

From lab to business

2017 was a great year for confocal.nl! Starting with the opening of our new office (Sciencepark 406, 1098XH, Amsterdam), where Irene Stellingwerf, the first ever employee, had the honour of cutting the ribbon. Our own facility away from the university labs was a big step for us as a company.

Opening of the new office (Erik, Irene, Peter)
At the RCM factory. Pay attention to the shelves on the right side! (Fred, Remco and Erik)

First units of RCM were shipped to customers in 2017. All RCM units are tested in our office before shipment, which can create sometimes a bit of a chaos, but it is always a great pleasure to see boxes being packed and prepared for a route to far away destinations.

 

Research and development

We have been doing pioneering work for Near Infra Red (800nm ex.) in the lab and we were really lucky to be awarded an Eurostars grant (called Detector) to study the potential deep imaging of single photon NIR.

Suring the summer 2017 we had 6 students helping us with different RCM applications. They worked on neuro imaging (Maaike), lipid vesicle imaging (Alesha), comparing SIM imaging and RCM imaging (Thomas), and NIR imaging (Stan). Danny started to work on the uManager driver and Fleur even designed a new microscope for the RCM. These were inspired times, happy and creative for all of us!!

How difficult is it to design a microscope? (Thanks again, Fleur)

Many meetings and conferences

We attended the HOLM in Luxembourg, FOM in Bordeaux, ELMI in Dubrovnik, MMC in Manchester. Seeing is Believing in Heidelberg, the Bangalore microscopy course, and finally ASCB in Philadelphia. What a nice feeling, setting up, demonstrating the RCM, showing our 170nm resolution even on the exhibition floor, and talking to potential customers. The feedback was overwhelming: signal to noise ration, value for money, but most important “the extreme ease of use”! In 2018 we plan to do all this again and even more….

Explaining RCM at the HOLM workshop in Luxemburg

 

All set up and ready to go in Dubrovnik for ELMI! (Irene)
Erik and Zheng installing RCM at the Bangalore Microscopy Course
Taken at the ELMI in Dubrovnik (during the coffee break), my favourite dataset. RCM 170 nm raw image on the left side and deconvoluted (123nm) at the right side

 

Expanding the team

Stan and Danny stayed working with confocal.nl. Stan is working with us full time now, as a field service engineer, setting up RCM at customer locations and supporting users.

Danny is working part time, providing uManager support. Riina joined us to take care of our website and activities in the social media. In September, Carla joined the team to take care of all the sales activities. I am really proud of this talented, young and enthusiastic team!

 

From start-up to scale-up

For me, 2017 was the transition year from a start-up to scale-up. 2018 will be the year for scale up. We are discussing with different investors how to drive this scale up phase the best forward. More news soon. We have set ourselves an ambitious sales target for 2018, but I am confident that with the current team and the support from Erik and Ronald from the University lab, we can achieve this! In case you are interested learning more about what RCM can do for you in your lab or would like to know more about the upcoming RCM-NIR, please contact one of us!

May you all reach your (new year) resolutions in 2018!

Enjoying spring sun in Bordeaux (Irene, Peter, Danny and Erik)

Camera Recommendations

With the number of installed RCM systems growing, the range of different objectives and cameras used with the RCM is expanding too – in many cases, RCM has been added to upgrade already existing imaging system. This is also our goal: to be an affordable add-on to the existing imaging system, allowing for high resolution confocal imaging.

In case you are looking at your old microscope equipped with your favourite objective and camera, and wonder, whether you could use what you already have as a basis for a re-scan confocal microscope, then this post is exactly for you!

The table below lists all of the objective and camera types we recommend to use with RCM. For the objective types not listed, no improved lateral resolution will be achieved through the re-scanning principle. Also axial resolution and sectioning power will be reduced due to a mismatch of the RCM pinhole size.

Camera recommendations are based on Nyquist sampling criteria, allowing to achieve the theoretical resolution in your actual camera images. Other cameras than those recommended can be used, but may result in a lower resolution than stated below.

Do not hesitate to contact us for advise on your objective and camera choice!

Moments from Bangalore microscopy course

The IXth Bangalore Microscopy course took place at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, 17-24 September. This highly practical course brought together world leaders in biological microscopy, both scientists, as well as manufacturers of state-of-the art equipment, and combined the lectures with hands-on sessions. The topics covered during the course ranged from basic microscopy to super-resolution techniques, the latter was represented by prof. Erik Manders, cofounder of Confocal.nl, and the Re-scan Confocal Microscope.

Some of the nice moments from that course:

Erik explaining the students the Re-scan principle during the workshops.

 

Zheng, Amit and Erik take care of last alignment of the “home-made” laser that was coupled into the RCM-box. Even with this home made laser the image quality was OK, but still better to use a standard laser-box next year…

 

During the Bangalore course, students learn how the microscope works. And there is no better way to learn that than building one from the scratch. This group managed to build a microscope that included a condensor, field stops, apertures and camera. It was not only educative, but also great fun!!

 

RCM on the road

This fall we are taking the RCM on a tour! 

On-site demonstrations are planned at imaging facilities throughout the BeNeLux and Germany, allowing local researchers to test and evaluate the system with their own specimens.

Starting already tomorrow, the RCM will be on display for September 12-22 at the University Medical Centre in Utrecht. Are you in the Utrecht area & interested to test re-scan confocal system, contact us at info[at]confocal.nl to register!

After Utrecht, we will move to the EMBL in Heidelberg and stay there for the whole October. RCM will be on display at Seeing is Believing, after which it can be tested in the Advanced Light Microscopy Facility until the end of October. Come visit our booth or contact us to book a spot on the system in Heidelberg.

Keep an eye on our website and social media to see where the RCM will be next, and when it will be near you. We are looking forward to seeing you at one of our events!

Interested in having the system for evaluation at your own facility? Let us know, and we will be glad to discuss the possibilities!

RCM – the encouraging success story

Anke Stekelenburg, the Program Officer from NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences (TTW, previously Technology Foundation STW), visited our office on Tuesday July 18th.

Erik Manders and Anke Stekelenburg next to the RCM

It’s worth reminding that RCM technology was based on the STW project and PhD work of Giulia De Luca, titled ‘Super-resolution microscopy (“nanoscopy”): from sharp images towards imaging of molecular interaction” (PI Erik Manders).

The nanoscopy project resulted in both, scientific publication and PhD’s, as well as the creation of Confocal.nl.

Truly a great success in the spirit of STW / NWO & as such hopefully an inspiration for other projects!