Attention: Confluence is not suitable for the storage of highly confidential data. Please ensure that any data classified as Highly Protected is stored using a more secure platform.
If you have any questions, please refer to the University's data classification guide or contact ict.askcyber@sydney.edu.au

Skip to end of banner
Go to start of banner

Microscopy Quality Control

Skip to end of metadata
Go to start of metadata

You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

« Previous Version 3 Next »

Modern fluorescence imaging systems are complex instruments made of many optical, mechanical, and electronical components. The possibilities of misalignment, malfunction or failure of imaging instruments can come from different components. Therefore, regularly controlling the quality of such instruments is important.

Aim:

  • Ensuring the acquisition of reliable data and preventing corrupted data

  • Removing the bias introduced by the instrument

  • Knowing how the system performances evolve over time and perform quantitative microscopy

Material: 

Argo SIM QC slide (Manufactured by Argolight France. Purchased in Dec 2021). This slide is composed of different fluorescent patterns in 2D and 3D. Below is an overview of available fluorescent patterns and corresponding quality tests.

Quality Test

Corresponding Pattern

Patten Image

QC Frequency

Lateral resolution

Gradually spaced lines

Monthly

Intensity response

Intensity gradation (4x4 & 2x16)

Monthly

Field uniformity

Field of rings

Monthly

Field distortion

Field of rings

Monthly

Stage drift during Z-stacking

3D crossing stairs

Yearly

Stage drift during timelapse

Repositioning cross

Yearly

Optical sectioning strength

Matrix of crosses

Yearly

Accuracy of 3D reconstruction 

Sphere

Yearly

Line spread function

Field of rings

Yearly

Ring spread function

Field of rings

 

Yearly

Method:

  • Step1: Image acquisition

Depending on what quality items to be checked with a certain fluorescence microscope, patterns can be imaged using the Argo SIM QC slide.

  • Step 2: Image analysis

Images of different pattens can be processed in the dedicated software Daybook 3.

Report:

Following the link below, we present the report on Quality Control (QC) in three imaging systems.

  • Olympus BX53 Fluorescent Microscope

  • Olympus VS120 Slide Scanner

  • DeltaVision Elite Deconvolution Microscope

  • No labels