Imagining & Image Analysis Core

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Over the past 9 years of COBRE grant support, the Edward C. Carlson Imaging and Image Analysis Core Facility has become an important research resource that supports the microscopic imaging and image analysis requirements of our COBRE grant supported neurodegenerative disease research group as well as other investigators. The Core maintains and provides access to fluorescence, confocal, multiphoton intravital and electron microscopy instrumentation, assists investigators in the design of experiments, develops new applications, and trains investigators in microscopic methods and use of the equipment, and provides core users with information resources related to microscopic imaging. Equipment housed in the Core includes two confocal microscopes, a multiphoton/visible confocal intravital microscope, two fluorescence microscopes, two electron microscopes, and a range of ancillary microscopy equipment. Acquisition of new sophisticated confocal and multiphoton equipment, maintenance of service contracts, support for staff positions, and increased training of investigators in the use of our imaging and image analysis equipment has provided investigators with the ability to employ a range of imaging applications that were not available prior to the COBRE program. The number of publications arising from work performed in the Core has increased to the point where approximately 1/3 of the publications arising from the basic science departments include data collected in the Imaging Core Facility. Moreover, investigators from other parts of campus including the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering as well as from the Energy and Environmental Research Center on the UND campus use the facility. Projects conducted in the Imaging Core Facility investigate a broad range of biomedical issues including protein distribution and expression in cells and tissues, protein-protein interactions, membrane receptor and transporter distribution and function, and cellular and tissue changes as hallmarks of disease pathogenesis. Continued support of this Core will be critical to growing our research enterprise, and will allow the Core to become a sustainable resource that supports research campus-wide as well as elsewhere in the region.