EVOS™ Light Cube Starter Kit bundles some of our most popular light cubes into a convenient package.
The EVOS Light Cube Starter Kit for DAPI and GFP contains two second-generation EVOS light cubes: DAPI 2.0 (Cat. No. AMEP4950) and GFP 2.0 (Cat. No. AMEP4951). The DAPI light cube is ideal for use with BFP, DAPI, Hoechst, LysoTracker Blue, NucBlue Live, and other fluorophores with excitation and emission maxima near 357 and 447 nm. The GFP light cube is ideal for use with AlexaFluor 488, CellTracker Green, GFP, MitoTracker Green, and other fluorophores with excitation and emission maxima near 482 and 524 nm.
These second-generation LED light cubes are backwards compatible with older EVOS and Countess systems and can be used with first-generation light cubes. Like the original light cubes, these LED cubes are user-changeable and automatically recognized by the instrument.
EVOS Light Cube starter kits offer these important advantages:
Efficient light engines
Our second-generation light cube design dramatically features a larger aperture that increases illumination uniformity, which affords superb tile-stitched image quality and consistency. In addition, new LED light and filter combinations maximize the signal-to-background ratio so critical for dim samples, improving data quality irrespective of signal strength for both EVOS and Countess systems. By placing the LED light cube as close as possible to the objective turret, the number of optical elements in the light path is minimized. High-intensity illumination over a short light path increases the efficiency of fluorophore excitation, providing better detection of weak fluorescent signals.
Hard-coated filter sets for higher transmission efficiencies
Hard-coated filters are more expensive but have sharper edges and significantly higher transmission efficiencies that typically result in >25% higher light transmission compared to soft-coated filters. LED bulbs and filters optimized to maximize the signal from target fluorophores, while minimizing that from other dyes (i.e., bleed-through), will help you obtain brighter fluorescence, higher transmission efficiencies and ability to detect faint fluorescence signals, and better signal-to-noise ratios. These factors raise both image and data qualities.
Continuous light intensity
Mercury arc lamps can decrease in intensity by 50% in the first 100 hours of operation. Plus, images acquired in different sessions cannot be quantitatively compared using mercury illumination without complicated calibrations. EVOS cubes retain continuous light cube intensity that affords consistent illumination from day-to-day and experiment-to-experiment and help you to directly compare quantitative results from images acquired on different days. Each light cube contains a precisely matched set of optical components to optimize the position, evenness, and intensity of the light beam. These digitally controlled light sources make it easy to adjust light intensity, exposure time, and camera gain that can reduce phototoxicity and photobleaching.
Less expensive to own and maintain
The LED bulbs on the EVOS systems are rated for >50,000 hours (∼17 years), compared to 300 hours for a typical mercury bulb and 1,500 hours for a metal halide bulb. This translates to savings in the overall upkeep of your instrument.
