Cairn is an Independent research-orientated company specialising in microscopy solutions for the life sciences. From our origins as a provider of turnkey optical systems for fast intracellular ion measurements we have maintained close links with our academic customer base enabling us to develop a broad range of products and solutions to meet their expanding needs. Our strength lies in our understanding of both the requirements of the research microscopy community and of the advances in technology from which they can benefit. We have a “can do”, informal, and friendly attitude and are always willing to give advice. The company has evolved organically to encompass four distinct, but interrelated areas.

We are instrument designers, manufacturers and vendors of both Illumination and Detectionproducts. Our illumination products encompass a wide range of light sources, adapters and specialist launch systems; typically used in conjunction with a third-party, or Cairn-built, microscope or macrosope. On the detection side our primary focus is on multi-channel imaging using one or more third-party cameras. These products are largely based around optical techniques, most importantly, fluorescence, optogenetics, photolysis and transmitted light imaging. Although fully independent we are closely allied with Chroma Technology and a large number of our illumination and detection products make use of their high performance interference filters.