The following tools and services are available in the Neuroscience Institute’s Imaging Center, located in Rooms 310-320 of the Link Building. This facility is available for use by any Investigator on Campus. For questions and pricing, please contact the Technical Manager, Amanda Preston, Ph.D., at either apresto9@uthsc.edu or 448-5976.
The Zeiss 710 confocal microscope features 34-channel spectral detection (10 nm resolution), 7 laser lines (405 nm, 458 nm, 488 nm, 514 nm, 561 nm, 594 nm and 633 nm) and 6144 x 6144 resolution. This system has the ability to carry out live imaging and advanced imaging methods such as FRET and FRAP.
The BioRad MRC 1024 confocal microscope is equipped with a Krypton/Argon laser, with three excitation lines co-aligned at 488 nm, 568 nm, and 647 nm.
The Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) Core features a JEOL JEM 2000EX II TEM equipped with digital imaging for ultrastructural imaging studies. The JEOL TEM routinely operates at 60kV but is capable of imaging thicker sections as 200 kV and can tilt images for specific studies. The TEM Core also provides services such as processing of tissue and embedding in plastics, and sectioning of plastic embedded blocks (for both light and transmission electron microscopy). Staining using Toluidine Blue and negative staining for TEM is also available.
The Microtomy Core features two cryostats and a sledge microtome for producing sections from frozen tissue, two rotary microtomes for paraffin embedded material and a Vibratome for sectioning unembedded tissue. A paraffin embedding station is available. Also available in the Imaging Center are two Reichert-Jung UltracutE ultramicrotomes, for the sectioning of plastic embedded tissue for both light microscopy and electron microscopy studies.
Room 310 Workstation features a Nikon Optiphot and computer-assisted morphology using two advanced scientific programs and high-resolution digital video microscopy. The Stereo Investigator program facilitates unbiased design-based stereology studies. Stereo Investigator can analyze data from multiple modalities: using live images from the attached digital camera or stored image sets from confocal microscopes, electron microscopes, and scanning tomographic sources. It also features sophisticated tools for anatomical mapping, which can be used to delineate regions of interest for stereology probes, to map cell distributions, to prepare anatomical maps for publication, and to perform detailed morphometric analyses. The Neurolucida program allows for 3D reconstruction of neurons, serial reconstruction of brain sections, and precise cell plotting.
Room 318 Workstation is available for image analysis of images captured on the Zeiss 710 confocal. The workstation features the Zeiss Zen10 software, the image analysis software Imaris, and Autoquant’s Autodeblur program for 3-D deconvolution of confocal as well as conventional light microscope images.
The facility employs an Imaging Server for temporary storage of all digitally acquired images for later downloading from their own labs.
Liquid Nitrogen is available.