When putting up a laboratory, many considerations should be addressed so that you can have a more precise and conclusive study. If you are looking for a room to be used in a live-cell imaging experiments, the first factor to look for is adequate ventilation. Ventilation is very essential in this kind of experiments since the mercury and xenon arc-discharge lamps used in this kind of experiments produces ozone, as well as the fumes that is generated by the organic solvent that is utilized in cleaning the optical surfaces and also in disinfecting the microscope stage. Enough space should be reserved about microscope equipments for proper ventilation and also for cleaning and disinfecting the floors, tabletops, benches, and other experiment apparatus. Some of the failure of equipments can be attributed to air intakes that have been clogged, that are too close to the floor and are out of reach. A live-cell laboratory needs to be carefully cleaned and disinfected, and it should be kept in order to minimize the levels of factors such as smoke, dust and other vapors that can decrease the efficiency of the performance of optical and electronic apparatuses. The microscope stage and the adjacent area should be occasionally wiped with a 70 percent ethanol and other ways to disinfect it and to decrease the occurrence of live-cell culture contamination by microorganisms. Culture media spills are a fact of live when doing live-cell experiments, they are unavoidable. If this thing occurs, the area should be cleaned right away and the adjacent area be disinfected thoroughly.

In addition, mechanical vibrations are also important in the conduct of live-cell experiments because it can affect the performance of microscope equipments. Mechanical vibrations can be produced by air handlers that are used as central heating and cooling units, low temperature incubators, refrigerators, and even traffic outside the corridors. Some vibrations may be unnoticeable at first, but it can pose a great impact on the stability of the microscope. Many kinds of techniques have been developed to answer this particular problem of low frequency vibrations inside live-cell laboratories. One way is to use feedback-controlled isolation tables that are filled with gas, which is the most expensive choice, or perhaps the comparatively affordable flexible synthetic polymer vibration isolation pads.

The vibration pads are sold at a wide range of geometry and damping levels to match a wide variety of configurations and needs. When the vibration pads are coupled with a heavy piece of aluminum or a pre-drilled isolation platform, the vibrations that is generated by the surrounding can be reduced to very imperceptible levels. On the other hand, high frequency vibrations can be minimized, in a lot of cases, though the use of extra weight that is placed on the top of the table. Furthermore, when you are observing very minute displacements of sub-resolution characteristics, it is best to work late at night or very early in the morning where it is much quieter.