Leicester Institute for Pharmaceutical and Health Innovations

The Thermo Scientific CellInsight CX5 is a compact benchtop high-content screening platform, offering automated quantitative cell analysis for every cell biology or screening lab. Designed to increase screening throughput, the platform offers five multiplexable wavelengths for fluorescence (386/440,485/521, 560/607, 650/694, 740/810) and white-light illumination for colorimetric samples. The system is compatible with 6-well through 1,536 microwell plates. The system is equipped with live cell imaging module. With proprietary autofocus and integrated plate-scanning intelligence methods, the CellInsight CX5 HCS Platform brings speed and accuracy to investigate cell populations and phenotypes without sacrificing sensitivity and resolution.

The microscopy facility is located on the lower ground floor of the Hawthorn Building (HB00.11).

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The faculty of HLS has numerous mass spectrometry instrumentation from Agilent 6120 liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS), Bruker 300-MS gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and an Agilent 7900 inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). In addition, HLS benefits from the availability of an LC-QToF MS.

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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful non-destructive analytical techniques for determining the content quantitatively, its molecular structure and purity of chemical compounds. Modern NMR spectroscopy is widely applied in many disciplines of scientific research, medicine, and various industries such as chemistry, biology, material science, medicine, petroleum industry, and environmental studies. Once the basic structure is known, NMR can be used further to determine molecular conformation in solution as well as studying physical properties at the molecular level such as conformational exchange, phase changes, solubility, and diffusion.

Advances in technology now permit the solution of increasingly complex problems, and the acquisition of spectra on previously 'unacceptable' samples has now become routine. Currently, it represents a major building-block of all modern, ‘state-of-the art’ Pharmacy and Chemistry Schools/Departments worldwide.

The JEOL NMR spectrometer is currently situated in the Hawthorn Building in NMR Facility room HB00.08.

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The Analytical Microscopy Suite is home to a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) coupled with an Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy system. The SEM is a Carl Zeiss EVO LS 15, equipped with a Peltier stage (allowing fully hydrated ‘wet’ samples to be analysed) and a STEM detector. The EDX system is an Oxford Instruments X-max 80mm² detector equipped with Aztec feature, allowing large area mapping and Gunshot Residue (GSR) samples to be analysed. The facility supports research and teaching in Health and Life Sciences and provides a service to other faculties within De Montfort University and to the commercial sector.

Technical staff supporting the facility have many years’ experience of SEM, along with a history of delivering a high standard analytical service, ranging from pharmaceuticals to forensic analysis.

The facility is located on the lower ground floor of the Hawthorn Building (HB00.12).

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The Zeiss LSM 900 is a state-of-the-art, inverted confocal microscope that supports a wide range of reflected and transmitted light applications, including fluorescence, brightfield, DIC, PlasDIC, and Phase imaging. The system is fitted with four laser lines (405, 488, 561 and 640 nm) and a Colibri 7 solid state LED source (385, 430, 475, 555, 590, 630, 735 nm), which in combination with variable Secondary Dichroics (VSDs) provide comprehensive coverage from UV to far red illumination. The system is also capable of super-resolution imaging using Airyscan 2 which allows for simultaneous improvement in resolution and signal-to-noise ratio.

The system set-up allows for imaging of a wide range of biological samples (both live and fixed material), is housed in an environmental chamber that enables temperature and CO₂ control, can accommodate a variety of different sample holders, and supports live cell imaging (e.g. cell growth, protein-tracking). Imaging can be performed using a range of different objectives (x5, x10, x20, x40, x63 oil, x100 oil), while the motorised stage and advanced AI sample finder allows users to carry out tile scanning to quickly find regions of interest. The Zen Blue software allows for easy image curation and processing, including the generation of 3D stacks (working depth of up to 200 m), movies, and image rendering.

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