Automated microscopy gets a new shape; TILL Photonics' iMIC motorized imaging platform is no ordinary microscope.(Tools & Tech)

Rainer Uhl, CEO of Grafelfing, Germany-based TILL Photonics (www.till-photonics.com), laments that while the field of microscopy has evolved dramatically over the last century, the classical light microscope itself has not. New applications such as confocal and multiphoton microscopy were adapted to the microscopes rather than vice versa, placing constraints on the user.

Uhl and colleagues, in cooperation with the BioImaging Zentrum of the University of Munich, adopted a different approach, redesigning the tool to fit the method. "We said, let's take all the known applications together, distill the essence of what microscopy is or will be, and try to design something …