Equipment & Capabilities

Fluorescence Microscopy & Imaging Center

The following equipment and supplies are available for use by NIEHS scientists in conducting their research. The equipment and supply capabilities are listed for easy reference.

INVERTED MICROSCOPE

Conventional (non-confocal) microscope with:

• Fluorescence filter sets for DAPI, CFP, GFP, YFP, RFP, Cy5
• Objective lenses from 1x to 60x oil immersion
• High resolution color digital camera
• Special applications: quickly check cells for fluorescence; take a picture when confocal is not needed

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LASER-SCANNING MICROSCOPE

Zeiss LSM 510 NLO META; or "510 NLO" for short. Laser-scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) with:

• Inverted, partly motorized microscope
• 2 high-sensitivity fluorescence detectors + transmitted light detector
• META spectral detector
• Spectral unmixing in software
• Lasers(nm): 458, 488, 514, 543, 633, 720-960 (tunable)
• 2-photon excitation with near-IR laser
• Twin NDDs (non-descanned detectors) for improved detection with 2-photon excitation
• Objective lenses from 5x to 63x oil immersion
• Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM) special applications: deep tissue imaging; fluorescence lifetime measurement; emission spectra scan/unmixing

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LASER-SCANNING MICROSCOPE

Zeiss LSM 510 UV META; or "510 UV" for short. Laser-scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) with:

• Inverted, fully motorized microscope
• 2 high-sensitivity fluorescence detectors + transmitted light detector
• META spectral detector
• Spectral unmixing in software
• Lasers(nm): 351, 364, 458, 488, 514, 543, 633
• Motorized XY stage
• Objective lenses from 5x to 63x oil immersion special applications: UV photoactivation, caged compound release; emission spectra scan/unmixing

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LASER-SCANNING MICROSCOPE

Zeiss LSM 410; or "410" for short. Laser-scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) with:

• Inverted microscope
• 3 high-sensitivity fluorescence detectors + transmitted light detector
• Lasers(nm): 405, 488, 543, 568, 647
• Objective lenses from 5x to 63x oil immersion special applications: CFP/YFP FRET; weak red probes; ICS

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KEYMAKER

Windows graphics workstation; or "keymaker" for short. High-end Windows workstation with licensed software for image reconstruction and analysis:

• Zeiss LSM (for accessing Zeiss files, basic processing)
• Huygens (3D image deconvolution)
• MetaFluor (ratio image processing w/ Region of Interest kinetics analysis)
• MetaMorph (particle tracking; object measurement)
• ImageJ (freeware for various image processing)

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TEMPERATURE CONTROL

Temperature and CO2 control on the microscope stage

• Available on most microscopes
• *Restrictions: Most of the "microscope chamber incubators" the center has are standardized on the 35mm dish format.

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PHOTO-QUALITY PRINTER
MINI-INCUBATOR WITH TEMPERATURE AND CO2 CONTROL

Photo-quality Printer

• Inkjet printer, letter size prints, when you need better quality than what your color laser printer provides. The center also has a b/w laser printer which you should use when you don’t need color output.
• *Restrictions: the Canon i960 printer is connected on the network from Windows clients only

Mini-incubator with temperature and CO2 control

• Keep cells happy while they are waiting in the queue for the microscope.
• *Restrictions: for temporary use only while using the other equipment in the FMIC

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DISSECTING MICROSCOPE

Dissecting microscope

• Conveniently located when live tissue is the sample for the microscope.
• *Restrictions: for temporary use only while using the other equipment in the FMIC

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