Microscopy Core Facilities

User Fees for Imaging Equipment

Confocal Microscopy

Two confocal microscopes are currently available:

• Olympus FV300 has two excitation lines (488, 568) and two fluorescence and one transmitted light acquisition channels (major upgrade in Nov 2007; charges for this instrument are effective since the upgrade).
• Olympus FV1000 has six excitation lines (405, 488, 458, 511, 568, 633) and four fluorescence and one transmitted acquisition lines (new in Oct 2006; current fee $20/hour)

Charges

All charges will be based on 30-minute increments, rounded up to the next full hour or half hour; the minimum charge for a session is $20.

• Olympus FX Fluoview FV300: $20/hour
• Olympus FV1000: $20/hour
• Technical Assistance: An additional $10 per hour will apply to any confocal microscope use assisted by Michal Kraszpulski, Ph.D., Shannon Romer, Francisco J. Alvarez, Ph.D., or any other technically trained CNC personnel.
• Annual user fee: For experienced confocal users who will use this instrumentation for more than 250 hours a year (or $5,000 in fees), there is the option to pay an annual fee of $5,000 (payable at a pre-arranged time) for unrestricted access to both confocal microscopes during the following 12 months.

Electron Microscopy

Phillips 208S is a 100kv transmission electron microscope with excellent contrast and resolution with properly prepared specimens. The instrument, besides data-rich film output, is also coupled to a GATAN Bioscan camera that permits high-resolution digital imaging. This capability is a key for the rapid analysis of sufficient electron microscopy material for quantitation and statistical analysis. The microscope is supported by the specimen preparation lab equipped with two ultramicrotoms MT 6000 (DuPont-Sorvall and RMC). The post-microscopic analysis can be performed in the imaging workstation coupled to a high resolution scanner (Flextight 848, Imacon) for digitalization of electron microscopy photographic negatives. The electron microscopy images obtained by scanning EM negatives or from the EM digital camera can be processed by means of Image Pro Plus (ver. 5.1), installed on the same computer. The computer software includes also Microsoft Excel, Power Point and CorelDraw (ver. 12) for analysis, presentation and preparation of publishing materials.

The lab will provide technical help for inserting and withdrawing specimens in and out of the electron microscope, and in processing any EM negatives. Thus, usage of this instrument is always implemented with assistance by an authorized personnel (Ricardo Zerda or Dr. Kraszpulski). The fee is $20/hour with technical assistance plus EM negative usage.

Special Considerations

Special considerations will be given to P.I.’s who include in their grant budgets support (full or partial) for the extended warranties, maintenance plans or major upgrades of the core instrumentation.

Current examples are:

• The NIH program project grant (P.I., Timothy Cope, Ph.D.) has a budget that will support 75 percent of the FV1000 confocal microscope extended warranty and 50 percent of the electron microscope contract for the next five years. Therefore, confocal and electron microscope usage time related to PPG grant projects will be waived.
• R01’s of Robert Fyffe, Ph.D., and Dr. Alvarez include support for 50 percent of the electron microscope annual maintenance contract. Thus, annual fees for electron microscope usage are waived for these investigators during the years included in the support.
• R01 from Dr. Fyffe supported the latest upgrade of the confocal microscope in 2007 and will thus result in fees for his projects being waived to the extent of this major contribution.

Depending on future circumstances (for example, increasing costs for maintenance or changing major equipment) these regulations may be altered.