Applications
Cameras built by Spectral Instruments are designed to achieve the highest standards and level of quality in the scientific imaging market. Cooled CCD cameras are ideally suited for applications requiring the lowest noise level for detection of the faintest of light signals.
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Astronomy
The 600 (discontinued - see 1100 Series cameras) and 1100 Series cameras are well suited for the long exposures and faint light signals that astronomers typically encounter. Extremely low dark current levels must be provided for exposures that can last for many minutes to hours at a time. Spectral Instruments cryo-cooled CCD cameras can image for up to thirty minutes before a single electron of dark current is generated per pixel. Cameras made for imaging astronomical objects are individually optimized to ensure the maximum dynamic range of a CCD and the lowest noise possible are realized. Shown above is a picture of the Andromeda galaxy. Shown below is an image of the Trifid Nebula from one of our cameras featured on the June 30th Astronomy Picture of the Day
Image courtesy of Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)
Monitoring Circadian Rhythms
David Welsh and Steve Kay at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are using the Spectral Instruments 800 Series camera for their research on biological rhythms. Most living organisms generate circadian (ca. 24 hr) oscillations that persist even under constant conditions, allowing them to anticipate dawn and dusk, and to organize their physiology according to a daily program. Welsh and Kay have devised an optical method to monitor circadian rhythms of gene expression in individual cells. They use a firefly luciferase reporter gene driven by regulatory elements from a clock gene (per2), so that the cells glow with a circadian rhythm. Like dim stars in a night-time sky, however, the cells emit only a few photons per minute. Microscopic time lapse imaging of the glowing cells therefore requires a highly sensitive, low noise detector. Of five leading cameras tested for this demanding application, only the Spectral Instruments 800 Series camera has the required high QE, low read noise, and low dark current, and produced images free of artifacts. Mouse neurons seen in this movie show circadian rhythms of bioluminescence from a week-long experiment compressed into a few seconds.This study demonstrated that a specific gene (Cry2) is not required for rhythmicity. David Welsh, University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Drug Discovery
Faint light signals are commonly observed to determine whether compounds have interacted with biological targets. Companies performing drug discovery experiments commonly use Spectral Instruments cooled CCD cameras (800 and 850 Series) to observe light signals that demonstrate the efficacy of the drug interaction with a target biological compound or tumor. The 850 Series was designed specifically to match the noise performance of the cryogenically cooled cameras in a smaller package with thermoelectric cooling. Shown at left is an anesthetized mouse that has been bred to grow a specific tumor. Upon injection with the proper compound the tumor will glow in response to the drug interaction, and this faint light signal can be seen with our cameras with 10-20 minute exposures through the skin, fur and other tissue of the mouse. Scintillation proximity assays (SPA) are also used for drug discovery. Compounds with radioactive labels are tested in the presence of beads infused with scintillators (compounds that glow when exposed to ionizing radiation) that are coated with targets intended to mimic a protein or biological compound of interest. Normally, the radioactivity emitted from the tagged compounds is lost to the surrounding solution, but this changes if the potential drug compound interacts favorably with the target on the bead. Radiation emitted from the surface of the bead causes a low light signal that can be detected with our sensitive cameras as shown in the image above left.
X-ray Micro Computerized Tomography
X-ray Crystallography
Our largest camera, the 900 Series, is used for x-ray crystallographic applications. Intense x-ray sources such as the synchrotron at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility are used to determine crystal structures of all types of materials. An x-ray diffraction image used for crystal structure determination can be seen to the left. Scientists can calculate the exact shape of molecules in a crystal from the positions and intensities of the spots in such images.
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