On Thu, 25 Jan 1996 01:01:02 +0100, Martin K|hler wrote: > Equipment for "UNCAGING OF CAGED SUBSTANCES"? > >I wonder what equipment is used or should be used for uncaging (photolysis) >of caged (photoactivable) compounds. > >Questions about instrumentation: > >- What light sources are used (types of lasers, Xenon arc lamps, Mercury arc >lamps, flash lamps)? > >- How is the exact light path to the cell/cells/subcells? What types of >optics and components are used? > >- What effect or energy is needed? > >- What companies provide necessary parts (like Oriel, Newport, Melles Griot, >Hamamatsu)?=20 > >- What complete commersial systems are available for this, and how are their >performance? > Dear Martin, We use a Bio-Rad MRC-1000 UV system. The laser on this system is a Coherent Enterprise 250mW Argon ion. The method used is very similar to FRAP. The UV lines of the laser (363nm & 351nm) are scaned across the specimin using the clsm just as if you were imaging with UV, but usually in a highly localised area of the cell. This is where this method has an advantage over using a flash lamp, you can control which cell or indeed which part of a cell the caged compound is released from. The imaging is done by switching to the 488nm line and imaging the fluorescent compound eg. Fluo-3. If you would like furthur details you make contact me directly. Happy flashing, Stephen H. Cody, __ / Biomedical Confocal Microscopy Research Centre _/ \__/ \ Department of Pharmacology, / \ University of Western Australia, / \ Nedlands WA 6009, \* ____ / Australia. \_/ \_ _/ email: [log in to unmask] __ Phone: 61 09 346 4569 Fax: 61 09 346 3469 \/