Oxford Instruments Andor, a world leader in scientific imaging solutions, announce the launch of two new benchtop microscopes.

Following the successful introduction of the BC43 CF benchtop confocal microscope in 2021, Andor now offers benchtop fluorescence and super resolution models, all have been designed with cost, performance, and accessibility in mind.

The BC43 range will bring instant clarity and depth to research studies, whatever the sample, in ways previously only found in larger, more complex, and more expensive systems. The aim of the portfolio expansion is to make fluorescence, confocal, and super resolution microscopy accessible to a much wider user base across different research areas and experience levels.

More modalities. More performance. More certainty.

The new BC43 WF is a compact, easy-to-use, and affordable widefield microscope, ideal for automated imaging and smaller budgets. This entry-level system enables hassle-free, high-quality fluorescence imaging, and its in-field upgradability allows researchers to extend into confocal and super-resolution microscopy as requirements or budgets increase.

Completing the portfolio is BC43 SR, a microscope that delivers super resolution data quicker and easier than ever before, resolving samples down to 140 nm.

Crucially, optical performance is backed up by Andor’s new IQ / OQ quality control programme, which ensures that all BC43 microscopes operate within tightly controlled parameters, and provides confidence that data and experiments are reproducible in the future. This has been developed in collaboration with QUAREP-LiMi, an initiative with over 600 members from academia and industry, which is aiming to improve the reproducibility of light microscopy experiments.

The success of BC43 CF, launched in 2021, has inspired the team at Andor to push the boundaries even further by developing two new microscopes that offer maximum performance at minimum cost.

Andor’s Product Manager for Benchtop Microscopes, Dr Geraint Wilde, commented,

“Our benchtop confocal microscope has exceeded our expectations, very quickly being successful in a wide range of research topics such as cancer, neuroscience, development biology, and immunology. This confirms that many researchers are looking for affordable high-quality imaging solutions to add to their regular laboratory.

“With its high-speed spinning-disk technology, BC43 CF also delivered a higher level of productivity for researchers more accustomed to conventional point-scanning confocal technology. All these users have been stunned by the image quality of our confocal, given its price point. Additionally, as a routine imaging device for newcomers to microscopy, Core Facility Managers have adopted BC43 to relieve the strain on their more complex solutions.

“However, budgets can still be constrained for many new principal investigators, institutes, and regions around the world. Therefore, we wanted to take the BC43 concept further and offer an even more budget-friendly starting model with the epifluorescence BC43 WF, which then offers an incremental upgrade path through smaller budget steps to 3D imaging, confocal and even super resolution. This offers a uniquely affordable technology pathway to super resolution microscopy, addressing the multi-scale imaging common to many research projects today, spanning single cell to multi-cellular organoids, tissue sections and large model organisms.”

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