Confocal and Advanced Light Microscopy Facility (CALM)
Based in: Queen's Medical Research Institute (QMRI) as part of SuRF
Facility manager/ lead contact: Dr Rolly Wiegand and Dr Kseniya Korobchevskaya
The CALM facility provides infrastructure and services for biological optical imaging. Using analytical techniques based on light microscopy, they produce scientific results and images with high spatio-temporal information from intact cells, tissues and organisms on a scale from several millimetres down to tens of nanometres, and with a temporal resolution of days to milliseconds.
CALM not only gives access to the technical systems and the expertise required for a wide range of imaging applications, but also provides assistance and advice with regard to:
- multi-dimensional, high-content image acquisition
- live specimen imaging
- fluorescent labelling techniques
- experimental design
- image restoration and data analysis
- microscopy-related training and teaching.
IRR Imaging Facility
Based in: Institute for Regeneration and Repair (IRR)
Facility manager/ lead contact: Dr Matthieu Vermeren, Dr Daniel Gonzalez, and Dr Alex Kelman
The IRR Imaging Facility provides microscopes for live or fixed, cell and tissue samples. The facility has a range of microscopes and specialised equipment allowing to image samples from a few centimetres, using macroscopes, down to 100 nanometres, using superresolution.
Aside from the usual macroscopes, widefield, and confocal microscopes, IRR Imaging offers specialised equipment:
- A multiplex imaging system, the Akoya Phenocycler, which allows to stain for up to different 100 markers on the sample
- A FLIM-capable microscope, the Leica FALCON, designed to differentiate dyes and autofluorescence signals based on fluorescence lifetime. The FALCON has a tuneable white light laser between 440-790nm, allowing excitation of practically any fluorophore within the visible spectrum
- An holotomographic microscope, the Nanolive, which creates 3D images of live unstained samples purely based on the refractive index of their subcellular structures.
- A superresolution confocal, the Zeiss Elyra, which is capable of working at 100nm resolution.
- A micropatterning microscope, a Nikon Ti2 equipped with Alveole’s PRIMO. With PRIMO, one can engineer the shape – in 2D and 3D - and composition of cell substrate.
- A Particle analyser, the Zetaview Quatt, which is designed to visualise, count and analyse nanoparticles such as Extracellular Vesicles, viruses, etc…
- As a service, the facility offers an X-Clarity machine, which turns large biological samples transparent, opening the capacity to image deep within a sample without cutting.
- The Facility offers a library of dyes and optical support (i.e. glass-bottom slides)
Users of the facility are looked after from experiment conception, where they are advised on best sample preparation, microscope usage and best image acquisition, to image analysis. Facility staff help users get the most of their experiments by supporting them all the way through.
IRR Histology
Based in: Institute for Regeneration and Repair (IRR)
Facility manager/ lead contact: Melanie McMillan
This service can meet the demands of histological imaging , immunohistochemical, immunofluorescent and multiplex staining on fixed cells and tissues. Using a combination of technical experience and robotic platforms, the following is offered to GLP standards:
- Histological imaging
- Primary antibody optimisation
- High throughput immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence
- Multiplex protein detection (Colourimetric or Fluorescent)
- Custom multiplex detection (e.g. mRNA and protein)
- RNAscope (mRNA detection)
- Functional assays such as TUNEL (apoptosis)
These methods are conducted using an extensive range of equipment that includes POLARIS multispectral slide scanners, Zeiss Axioscan Slide Scanners and confocal microscopes, wide-field microscopes, stereomicroscopes and PALM MicroBeam microdissection technology.
The experienced team also provide training to use the equipment and offer to share their expertise in designing experiments and costing grants.
Histological imaging and immunodetection website
Advanced Imaging Resource
Based in: Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC)
Facility manager/ lead contact: Dr Ann Wheeler
The Advanced Imaging Resource is a consortium of imaging facilities within IGC. It works together with the Phenotypic Discovery Facility and the Centre for Comparative Pathology facilities and is a partner in the Edinburgh Super-Resolution Imaging Consortium, providing access to super-resolution optical imaging platforms.
The consortium is able to support imaging ranging from model organisms through to sub-cellular structures utilising cutting-edge imaging tools and technologies. It houses the following imaging systems:
- light, epifluorescence and confocal microscopes for live and fixed experiments
- advanced imaging techniques such as FRET, FRAP, FLIM and FCS
- multi-photon confocal microscope and Stimulated Raman spectroscopy
- a super-resolution microscopy suite for imaging samples smaller than 120nm
- a mesoscopy suite featuring MicroCT, OPT and macroscopes
- conditional imaging and fluorescent and bight field slide scanning
- bio image analysis and informatics.
The Advanced Imaging Resource also offers opportunities for training to enable researchers to engage with the latest technologies through workshops, on site demonstrations of new equipment and close liaison with its industrial partners. As well as this, consortium members teach in the internationally recognised ESRIC Super-resolution Summer School.
The facility is staffed by a manager, highly skilled scientific officers and an image informatician to provide scientific support for research.
Advanced Imaging Facility website