The Leica TCS SP5 Confocal Microscope is a very flexible and fast confocal system for fixed or living samples. The system includes a Leica DMI 6000 CS fully automated inverted microscope with motorized stage, condenser, objective, and filter turrets. The microscope is housed in a Ludin full enclosure incubator with an internal Ludin Cube2 with CO2, O2, and humidity controls. It is equipped with 5 lasers for excitation: violet diode (405 nm), multi-line Argon (458, 476, 488, 496, and 514 nm), green HeNe (543 nm), orange HeNe (594 nm), and red HeNe (633 nm); visualization is done using a mercury arc lamp. The spectral beam splitter has freely adjustable bandwidths for the collection of signal in 5 separate detectors simultaneously or sequentially. There is also a transmitted light detector for DIC. There are 9 available objectives, ranging from a 2.5x to a Plan Apo 100x/1.46 NA oil objective. The system runs on the LAS AF software (LAS AF 2.6.3), with FRAP, FRET, Mark & Find, 3D Visualization, Colocalization, and Live Data Modes.
The Nikon A1R Confocal & SIM Super Resolution System is a high-speed confocal microscope combined with a SIM (Structured Illumination Microscopy) super resolution system for fixed and live sample-imaging. The Nikon Eclipse Ti-E inverted microscope is built with fully automated objectives, stage, and filter turrets. The 5 objectives range from 10X to 100X. The confocal components include 5 detectors and 4 lasers: 405nm, 488nm, 561nm, and 640nm in wavelength. The SIM components include a Hamamatsu camera and 3 LED lasers: 488nm, 561nm, and 640nm in wavelength and CFI SR HP APO TIRF 100XC NA 1.49 OIL W objective. DAPI images can still be taken under SIM mode. The microscope is capable for bright-field imaging, multichannel fluorescence imaging, large image stitching, multipoint acquisition, time-lapse acquisition, FRAP, FRET imaging, and 2D/3D deconvolution. The resolution for conventional confocal reaches 200-250nm, while the resolution for super resolution system reaches 85-100nm. To allow long hour live cell-imaging, the microscope is housed in an incubator with temperature, CO2, and humidity controls (Tokai Hit controller).
The Olympus iXplore SpinSR is a high-resolution and fast spinning disk confocal system built on an inverted IX83 microscope base, with fully automated objectives, stage, and filter turrets. The confocal components include 4 lasers: 405nm, 488nm, 561nm, and 640nm in wavelength. The microscope is equipped with two cutting-edge sCMOS cameras (Hamamatsu ORCA-Fusion Gen -III) for simultaneous acquisition in two channels. The Yokogawa CSU W1 spinning disk unit houses two disks (25 and 50 µm) to best fit different objectives (range from 10X to 100X). The system is also equipped with a feedback stage-top incubation WSKMX chamber for temperature, CO2, and humidity control (Tokai Hit controller).
The Olympus FVMPE-RS Multiphoton System is purpose-built for deep imaging in biological tissue, aimed at revealing both detail and dynamics. It is an upright microscope with gantry frame, optimized for intravital imaging with a large space for live animals and experimental equipment. Innovative features for efficient delivery and detection of photons in scattering media enable high signal-to-noise ratio acquisition. The system is equipped with a dual wavelength laser with a tunable range from 680 nm to 1300 nm and a fixed wavelength line at 1045 nm (InSight X3 Dual-OL by Spectra-Physics). Hybrid scan unit consists of a high-speed acquisition resonant scanner and a high-definition galvanometer scanner. High-sensitivity GaAsP detectors and Olympus dedicated multiphoton objectives allow for deep tissue imaging under in vivo and cleared tissue conditions up to 8 mm deep
The Zeiss AxioObserver/Apotome system is built around a Zeiss AxioObserver Z1 inverted fluorescent microscope, fully automated, with component recognition to minimize errors. System components include mercury arc lamp excitation, a Zeiss AxioCamMRm CCD camera with 12-bit dynamic range, extended sensitivity in the near infrared, a fully automated XYZ stage, a complement of objectives ranging from 10x to 100x, and five installed filter sets for DAPI, FITC, narrow band GFP, Rhodamine, and Far Red. The Apotome attachment is designed for precise optical sectioning. The Apotome slides easily into the optical path and projects a grid onto the image plane, which is shifted laterally in three defined steps, with an image collected at each step. A software algorithm then removes any out-of-focus signal. The acquisition software is AxioVision v.4.8, including plug-in options for Inside 4D, 3D Deconvolution, Colocalization, Mark & Find, Mosaic, and more.
The Interherence VAHEAT is a precise temperature control unit for optical microscopes. It combines local heating with direct temperature sensing, allowing for fast and precise temperature adjustment. It is capable of heating rates up to 100°C/s while maintaining the highest temperature precision. Sample is prepared on a smart substrate equipped with a transparent heating element and a precise temperature probe. This unit is not specific to any one microscope and can be adapted for most.
There are four computer stations in the Core Facility Computer Lab reserved for microscope users, which are loaded with specialized imaging software.
- RCF offline1 - Leica LAS AF 2.6.3, NIS Elements AR 4.13.04, and Zeiss LSM 510 ZEN 2009.
- RCF offline2 - Media Cybernetics’ AutoQuant AutoDeblur deconvolution software (AutoQuant X3), including the AutoVisualize option, and full off-line versions of Zeiss LSM 510 AIM (confocal) and Zeiss Axiovision 4.8.2 (AxioObserver with Apotome) software.
- RCF offline3 - Bitplane Imaris 9.8 Single Full with Clearview software (MeasurementPro, ImarisTrackLineage, ImarisColoc, ImarisXT, ImarisCell, ImarisVantage, and ClearView-GPU™ Deconvolution). The package includes advanced functionality to detect cells and their major compartments, discover intracellular relationships, study motion, explore cell differentiation using an interactive lineage tree.
- RCF offilne4 - Bitplane Imaris 9.8 Satellite (see above), Olympus cellSens Dimension V2 (Multi-Position Solution, Count & Measure Solution, TruSight 3D Deconvolution Solution).