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A panel of expert judges selected Nikon Instruments, Inc.'s Ti-E Perfect Focus System (PFS) as second place among the top ten in The Scientist's Top Innovations of 2008 Award, which recognizes winning combinations of invention, vision and utility. The award, the first-ever ranking of the best innovations in the life science market in the past year, acknowledges Nikon's exclusive PFS system for its unique ability to provide real time focus correction.

Designed to combat focus drift caused by thermal and mechanical effects, PFS is a hardware component that helps address some of the challenges inherent in live-cell, time-lapse imaging, namely those associated with keeping the cells alive and in focus during long-term experiments. Using a half-moon shaped beam of infrared light to track optical offset and correct it for sampling every five milliseconds, PFS holds focus both in time-lapse experiments and in short-term studies. The PFS eliminates the need for the researcher to constantly readjust the focus during the course of the experiment, enabling imaging experiments to be conducted for longer than ever before possible.

"We are honored to receive this recognition for the Ti-E PFS," said Stan Schwartz, vice president of Nikon Instruments. "PFS is truly a groundbreaking innovation, enabling long-term live-cell optical imaging techniques using 52 of the most popular CFI60 air and immersion style objectives. It is in high demand among our customers who cite its high performance and transparent ease of use, further validating this award and the need it fills in the scientific research community."

The award's panel of expert judges included David Piston, Simon Watkins, Klaus Hahn, and Steven Wiley, who have collectively published more than 700 scholarly articles.

The user-friendly design of Nikon's Ti microscope series has also received this year's "Good Design Award," Japan's only comprehensive design evaluation and commendation system operated by the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization. This prestigious award program has its origins in the "Good Design Selection System" (generally known as the "G-Mark System") instituted by the Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1957.