Linkam Correlative Microscopy Stage

The CMS196V³ is a cryo-CLEM instrument to enable the full workflow of CLEM. Apart from maintaining the sample vitrified by means of liquid nitrogen cooling it provides proven capabilities to safely handle and transfer cryo samples and image them with optical microscopy while keeping them free of contamination at all times. The integrated motorized, encoded stage of the latest model, together with the new LINK software enables high resolution maps of the grid to be produced quickly and easily. This provides a straight forward method of coordinate mapping required to locate the same sample in the fluorescence microscope as well as in the EM.

Developed in collaboration with Prof. Bram Koster’s team at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) in the Netherlands, the CMS196 is the result of 3 years of R&D.

“The correlative stage was developed out of the necessity for a tool that uses fluorescence microscopy to help localize structures of interest in samples for high resolution cryo electron microscopy imaging. Over the years the system has evolved into an effective and efficient instrument that enables the imaging of cryo electron microscope images after light microscopy characterization routinely.” Prof. A.J. Koster – LUMC

Although the CMS196V³ was designed specifically to solve the problem of how to get vitrified EM grids from the fluorescent microscope into the cryo TEM without devitrification and contamination through condensation, the stage also had to be optimized optically to enable the use of high NA lenses.

Up to 3 grids are loaded into a specially designed cassette which is transported from your plunge freezer in a small sealed container. The container is loaded into a precooled dry sample loading chamber fitted on your upright fluorescent microscope. The cassette is then easily loaded onto the viewing bridge using special manipulation tools.

With more than 100 systems now in the field around the world, the CMS196 is the proven market leader in Cryo-CLEM.