Cellular Neuroimaging Core

Center URL: http://www.cnmcresearch.org/research/MRDDRC.asp
Core URL: http://www.cnmcresearch.org/Mrddrcsite/index.htm

Core Personnel
Core Director: Tarik Haydar, PhD
Core Associate Director: Anastas Propratiloff, M.D., Ph.D.
Researcher: Ivan Navarro, Ph.D.

Core Keywords
Time-lapse multiphoton microscopy; confocal microscopy; calcium imaging; electrophysiology; organotypic slice cultures; cell line cultures

Core Description

The Cellular Imaging Core has one 2000 sq. ft. facility at the Center for Neuroscience Research at CNMC with equipment dedicated to time-lapse multiphoton microscopy, confocal microscopy, calcium imaging, electrophysiology and the production and maintenance of primary, organotypic slice and cell line cultures. Another 2000 sq. ft. facility at the George Washington University Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis has equipment and support for electron microscopy, confocal imaging, and image analysis.

Services

Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) Facility
The CNMC Facility is housed within the Center for Neuroscience Research at Children's Research Institute under the direction of Tarik Haydar, Ph.D. Several major pieces equipment in the CNMC facility include an LSM510 Meta NLO multiphoton/confocal microscope for time-lapse investigation in living brain tissue, a stereo fluorescence LUMAR microscope system, and a newly acquired Zeiss Apotome grid microscope for optical sectioning and live imaging. In addition, several other calcium imaging, stereo dissecting, and patch clamping systems are also housed within the CNMC facility.

George Washington University (GWU) Facility
The GWU facility is housed within the George Washington University Medical Center's Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis (CMIA). The mission of the GWUMC Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis is to train investigators to effectively utilize CMIA microscopic and molecular instrumentation to generate high-quality images for sponsored research projects.

Equipment

Equipment available at the GWU facility includes:

A Bio-Rad MRC-1024 Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (CLSM) with a Krypton/Argon laser and an Olympus IX-70 inverted Fluorescence Microscope for imaging the localization of proteins labeled with fluorescent probes by optically-sectioning specimens.

A JEOL JEM-1200EX Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) for imaging cellular ultrastructure.

Imaging Workstations comprised of a Microscope Workstation with an Olympus BX-60 upright Fluorescence Microscope with a Ludl Focus Motor and an Evolution Digital CCD Camera, a Prepress Workstation with an Agfa Flatbed Scanner, a Hewlett Packard LaserJet 2100M Printer and a Tektronics DS Color Printer, an Image-Pro Plus Image Analysis Workstation and a MetaMorph Image Analysis Workstation, including 3D Recontruction and Deconvolution modules for processing confocal images.

Molecular Imaging Workstations comprised of an Amersham Biosciences Storm 860 Phosphor Imager and Densitometer Workstation with ImageQuant Software for imaging and analyzing blots and gels, a Bio-Rad Fluor-S MultiImager Workstation with Quantity One Software, a Kodak M35A X-OMAT Film Processor and a Macintosh Workstation for DNA and Protein Sequencing via MacDNASIS Pro, Mac-Vector SA and Sequencher software.