Fluorescence Microscopy and Cell Imaging Shared Resource

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FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY & CELL IMAGING SHARED RESOURCE ABSTRACT The Fluorescence Microscopy and Cell Imaging Resource offers complete fluorescence microscopy imaging services. This Cancer Center managed resource is dedicated to enabling innovative, significant cancer research and promoting trainee development. The Resource provides member access to cost-effective services, sophisticated instrumentation, and salient expertise in quantitative, biomolecular imaging of cells and tissues. Faculty Director Angela Wandinger-Ness, PhD supervises the Resource, which is operated by expert staff with 38 years combined experience in light microscopy. Resource instrumentation is centrally located on the second floor of the Cancer Research Facility and a Cancer Center managed, web-based reservation system (iLabs) tracks usage and billing. Cutting-edge technologies for biomolecular imaging at super-resolution (nm scale), hyperspectral imaging for four-dimensional particle tracking, and light sheet microscopy (in development) are offered through negotiated agreements. More routine applications are readily accommodated by an array of upright and inverted Zeiss, Nikon and Olympus microscopes. Two Zeiss META confocal scanheads as well as an Olympus DSU spinning disk system enable confocal and multi-photon imaging of both fixed and live cells and tissues. Laser and scanhead configurations allow imaging of up to eight colors in the visible range, FRET, FRAP and infrared excitation. A CRi Nuance spectral camera, an Andor iXon EMCCD and a new Hamamatsu Flash 4.0 sCMOS camera offer exceptional high speed and resolution, low light sensitivity, and spectral image collection on wide-field instruments. TIRF capabilities for visualization of membrane events, single particle tracking and imaging in custom microfluidics chambers round out the top-flight capabilities of the Shared Resource. Instrumentation is regularly upgraded, in accordance with member needs, and through successful solicitation of extramural funding and UNMCC support, e.g. multi-photon instrument newly acquired in previous funding cycle. Multiple software packages allow image deconvolution, stereology, and quantitative evaluation of all collected data. Infrequent users may request full service imaging by expert staff members. Fees are comparable to other institutions. Resource personnel promote excellence in cancer research by incorporating the latest innovative technologies and instrumentation and by giving personalized advisement on best practices for sample preparation, probe selection and quantitative measures. Education and dissemination about resource capabilities is multi-modal: ranging from web-based resources and tours to custom, targeted lectures, and hands- on graduate courses. During the previous 5-yr funding period, 48 Cancer Center laboratories from all 4 UNMCC Research Programs used the Resource, resulting in a total of 89 publications, of which 12 are presently pending PMCIDs. In the reporting period (July 2013 – June 2014), UNMCC members were responsible for 67% of total Resource usage and were supported by 132 peer-reviewed grants.