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MicroPoint 4 - Photostimulation & Optogenetics Tool

Ablate, bleach, uncage and more with the new MicroPoint 4! Andor’s field-proven MicroPoint tool for photo-stimulation is now faster and offers greater flexibility. The patented compact, pulsed nitrogen pumped tunable dye laser is supplemented by new CW laser options. Refined optics and new electronics allow significantly faster and more precise control of illumination delivery. MicroPoint 4 can be integrated with Andor sCMOS and EMCCD cameras and Dragonfly confocal systems to create highly effective solutions for optogenetics and photostimulation in neuroscience, cancer studies, developmental and cell biology.

  • Simultaneous laser delivery and viewing: interactive targeting of microsurgery, damage, marking or activation
  • Smart and fast: new micro-controller manages galvo calibration, lasers, triggering and multi-region scanning.
  • Exceptional flexibility: N2-pumped, liquid dye-lasers and CW lasers for full-spectrum coverage 365-730 nm
  • Intuitive: autodetect manual head and control via new LCD touchscreen.
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Within the EU MicroPoint is only available for research purposes and not for commercial use

Features and Benefits of MicroPoint 4

The flexibility and precise control of illumination delivery provided by the MicroPoint 4 makes it easy to expand your research with a broad range of photostimulation based techniques.

Click the hotspots below to explore the key features and benefits of MicroPoint 4

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Applications

Photobleaching

The precise controlled delivery of illumination via MicroPoint is ideal for photobleaching sub-regions within the cell such as of endosomal tubules. This can serve as a basis for many FRAP style experiments e.g. to study protein turnover rates and trafficking processes in live cells.

MicroPoint 4 provides significantly higher scanning speeds than the previous MicroPoint, allowing for more effective photobleaching, and FRAP over larger areas.

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Ablation and Axotomy

MicroPoint is a proven tool of choice for many researchers for studying the vital mechanisms of cellular repair.​ The updated MicroPoint 4 model brings even greater speed, control and precision in ablation and axotomy applications.​ Target specific components of the cell with UV pulses to induce damage e.g.:​

    • Double strand breaks to DNA ​
    • Protein recruitment and distribution of repair proteins in DNA repair ​
    • Repurposed roles of vesicle trafficking in the repair or cell membranes​

In this example MicroPoint is being used to cut the cell junction and study mechanical heterogeneity in Xenopus. (Data courtesy of the Wallingford Lab, University of Texas at Austin).

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Photoswitching

MicroPoint 4 can be used for photoactivation, photoswitching and other optical stimulation or activation experiments.​ A choice of CW lasers allow precise control over illumination power, while the patented dye-cell based laser offers a highly cost effective way to add laser wavelengths to suit different applications.​

MicroPoint 4 is thus an excellent tool for studies of cell dynamics, signalling pathways and the growing number of studies that are exploiting photoswitching and activation methods.​

Right: Activation of EOS in drosophila embryo​

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Dr. Felix Rivera-Molina, Research Associate, Department of Cell Biology, Yale University

We use MicroPoint 4 to quickly bleach and activate fusion proteins in multiple areas of living cells. Precise targeting and fast bleaching is required to study dynamics in cilia, cytoskeleton and the plasma membrane. MicroPoint 4 helps us to explore deeper and with high throughput.

Dr. Felix Rivera-Molina, Research Associate, Manager Cinema Lab, Department of Cell Biology, Yale University.

MicroPoint is used in our research for precisely targeted uncaging in single cells. This capability allowed us to design new experiments to identify the functional role of calcium signalling in the NF-kB signalling pathway and cell division. MicroPoint is a valuable tool for targeted photostimulation.

Professor Mike White, Professor of Systems Biology, Manchester University, UK.

Professor Mike White, Professor of Systems Biology, Manchester University, UK

Learning Resources