Light Microscopes
Effective February 1, 2022 the optical microscopes in Life Sciences North were administratively combined with the optical microscopes in the Marley building (with no equipment being moved) to create the Imaging Cores - Optical (iLab webpage). A much more functional website should come online later in the spring of 2022. In addition, the biological electron microscopy facility in Life Sciences North has become the Imaging Cores - Electron (iLab webpage).
Zeiss Elyra: 3D Super Resolution
- Contact person: Doug Cromey, 520-626-2824
- Uses the technique of structured illumination (SR-SIM) to achieve resolutions two times better than that of a confocal, deconvolution or standard fluorescence microscope.
- Resolutions in XY of 110nm and in Z of 300nm are possible
- Allows users to image a volume in the sample that is 1/8 that of previous techniques
- Can image four fluorescent colors, roughly corresponding to DAPI, FITC/GFP, Rhodamine/RFP, and CY5
- SR-SIM can image to depths of 10-15 microns into a sample
- Microscope objectives:
- Plan-Neofluar 10x/0.30
- Plan-APO 40x/1.4 Oil
- Plan-Apochromat 63x/1.4 Oil
- Plan-Apochromat 63x/1.3 Oil/water/glycerine KORR
- Alpha Plan-APO 100x/1.46 Oil
- The laser lines are 405, 488, 561, 642nm, with the filter specs of:
- 405nm excitation (MBS 405 + EF BP 420-480 / LP 750)
- 488nm excitation (MBS 488 + EF BP 495-550 / LP 750)
- 561nm excitation (MBS 561 + EF BP 570-620 / LP 750)
- 642nm excitation (MBS 642 + EF LP 655)
Leica DMI6000 multifunction motorized inverted microscope with two cameras
- Contact person: Doug Cromey, 520-626-2824
- This mulitfunction fully-motorized inverted microscope can capture both color transmitted light images, and greyscale epi-fluorescence images.
- Leica DFC450 color CCD camera (5Mpix, 24bit) and Hamamatsu FLASH 4.0 sCMOS greyscale camera (4Mpix, 16bit, capable of 30fps in transmitted light imaging)
- Fluorescence cubes for dyes similar to DAPI, FITC/GFP, Rhodamine, and CY5.
- 2.5x, 5x, 10x, 20x, 40x dry objectives and 40x & 100x oil objectives, as well as a 1.0/1.6x optivar for intermediate magnifications.
- Stage can accommodate microscope slides, multiwell plates, and small culture dishes (35mm, 70mm).
- A BiopTechs Delta-T live cell culture dish controller is available to allow for long-term live cell imaging at 37 degrees C.
Electron Microscopy service
FEI Tecnai Spirit Transmission Electron Microscope
- This core features a full-service biological TEM facility. Users drop off fixed samples and we process them for TEM, section the blocks, and provide the user with digital images taken at various magnifications. We can provide 1 micron thick plastic sections suitable for light microscopy, in addition to the 90nm thin sections used for TEM. If users want to review their own samples, we will teach you how to use our TEM. The facility has a research-grade microwave for rapid infiltration of samples, which can also be used for antigen retrieval. Dr. Day has experience with immuno-EM and will provide protocols and ultrathin cryo sections on request.
- Contact person: Paula Tonino, 520-626-6009
- The TEM features:
- 80-120KeV
- Side-mounted AMT 4Mpix digital camera
- Single-tilt specimen holder
- Magnifications up to 300,000X, with sub-nanometer resolution