THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture & 3D Assay

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THUNDER Imagers provide you with a solution for advanced 3D cell culture assays, whether you want to study stem cells, spheroids, or organoids.

Benefit from:

High throughput for better statistics and workflow efficiency
High imaging performance from an easy-to-use instrument
Optimal physiological conditions for meaningful results

THUNDER Imagers feature the innovative Leica technology Computational Clearing. It efficiently removes out-of-focus blur in real time, enabling the meaningful use of 3D specimens with camera-based fluorescence microscopes. The high sensitivity of the system ensures low phototoxicity and photobleaching, i.e., higher throughput with optimal conditions.

THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture is based on a fully motorized DMi8 microscope, Quantum Stage, highly sensitive DFC9000 GTC camera, and multi-line, high-intensity fluorescence LED light source. It is optimized for fast and precise multi-position, multi-channel imaging of 3D cell cultures.

Automate Applications Minimum light exposure Speed Time-lapse Adaptive focus

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High throughput for better statistics and workflow efficiency

Automate your 3D cell culture assays to study next-generation disease models efficiently. THUNDER enables you to image large sample volumes, such as lung organoids, at high speed. In addition, the automation minimizes user interaction even for complex experiments.

The outcome is:

precise and reliable data in less time
higher throughput
better statistics and results

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Find the THUNDER Imager that’s right for you

Whether you are looking for a dedicated high-end imaging system that excels in a given application, or a versatile solution for a lab running different kinds of assays with various samples, we’ve got you covered.

Here are some selected application examples that show you the strengths of THUNDER:

With a THUNDER Imager 3D Assay you have these advantages

Immediate blur removal that help you visualize more intracellular details
More utilizable depth with widefield approach
Reliable quantification
Ready-to-use for your particular workflow analysis

With a THUNDER Imager 3D Cell Culture you have these advantages

Possibility to observe your specimens in plastic bottom dishes makes your workflow more efficient
Capacity to detect low signals of molecules with high QE camera
Low bleaching and low sample perturbance with widefield approach and precise timed LED illumination

Advantages of the THUNDER Imager Live Cell

Accurate live cell imaging experimentation allows tracking of fast cell movements
Low phototoxicity keep sensitive cell culture alive, even in long-term experiments
Speed-up your live-cell imaging workflow up to automated quantification and analysis

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For 3D cell culture, observing the true physiology is paramount for meaningful results. Typically, you want to investigate your cells while they are in a close to natural state by optimizing experimental conditions, e.g., the lowest light intensity and shortest exposure times possible.

THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture meets these demands with a high-end LED source that has a small bandwidth optimized for excitation. Even with low illumination and short exposure times, the sensitive high-end sCMOS camera delivers meaningful image information thanks to a quantum efficiency of up to 82%.

To further reduce exposure of the sample to light, illumination is limited to the actual recording time. The camera shutter is synchronized with the high-speed (20 µs switching time) Lumencor LED light source to minimize photobleaching.

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Image at the speed of life – Cellular processes

Life is fast, especially for a cell. Most modern live cell imaging experiments demand high-speed systems.

THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture provides you with the power of highly sensitive sCMOS camera-based fluorescence systems working with full frames in one shot.

In combination with high sensitivity, THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture allows you to capture data at up to 90 frames per second, helping you to observe fast cellular events. It captures blur-free image data quickly even deep inside a thick 3D cell cluster. You can stay on top of fast processes even during multiple emission wavelength experiments thanks to fast-switching external filter wheels (< 27 ms).

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Master time-lapse multi-position experiments: tracking cell changes

THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture offer both speed and reliability for your 3D cell culture multiwell experiments. For example, when tracking the growth and development of spheroids and organoids, its speed and reliability allows you to obtain excellent results.

Accurate time-lapse multi-position experiments and tracking of cell changes are achieved with this THUNDER Imager due to:

- Reliable drift correction with the Adaptive Focus Control (AFC)
- Software autofocus that compensates for changes in specimen position
- Reproducible Z-positioning with a precision of up to 20 nm (closed-loop focus)

Get more data points in less time with the new Quantum Stage. It moves rapidly and accurately (e.g. 10 positions per second) to all positions with an excellent repeatability (< ±0.25 µm), as there is no jiggling.

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Routine, reliable data acquisition

THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture enable reliable image data acquisition with accurate focus maintained on the live cells at all times.

Live cell imaging is often tricky, because of drift, morphology change, or growth of the cells. Drift is caused by vibrations, mechanical creep, or temperature fluctuations. Both drift and cell changes can reduce the reliability of the acquired image data, as focus becomes an issue. Thanks to the Adaptive Focus Control (AFC), closed-loop focus, and software autofocus, THUNDER Imager Live Cell & 3D Cell Culture reliably maintains focus for your multi well experiments.