The UB North Campus Imaging Facility is a confocal microscopy and biological imaging core facility at the University at Buffalo that offers users sophisticated image acquisition tools for microscopy.


In 2009, Drs. Jim Berry (Biological Sciences) and Arnd Pralle (Physics) were awarded a National Science Foundation MAJOR RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION grant to purchase a Zeiss LSM 710 Confocal Microscope.
In addition to the usual laser excitation lines of 405, 458, 488, 514, and 633nm, our Zeiss InTune laser can be tuned to produce any wavelength between 488 and 640 nm. It is one of very few instruments in the country so configured. Emission filtering is accomplished by spectral detectors instead of optical filtering. As a result, the microscope can be set up to image a wider range of fluorescent probes than many confocal microscopes.
The instrument is also equipped with fluorescence lifetime (FLIM) detectors. Since fluorescent molecules exhibit unique lifetimes measurable by FLIM detectors, they can provide an additional parameter to differentiate between probes.  More importantly, however, fluorescence lifetime can be used to measure Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), or intracellular environmental features such as pH, ion concentration, and protein interactions.
Other applications for the instrument include photo activation, spectral scanning, 3 dimensional reconstructions, Fluorescence Recovery after Photo-bleaching (FRAP), examination of samples too thick for wide field fluorescence microscopy, and live cell experiments that would benefit from a heated stage incubator.
Those interested in using the instrument should first consult with Alan Siegel,  by phone at  716-645-4961,  or  email .  The facility also houses a Lieca DMIR2 inverted fluorescence microscope equipped with a QImaging Retiga EXi CCD camera.  This instrument employs a tunable RGB filter permitting acquisition of high resolution true color images. Nevertheless, weakly fluorescent samples can  be imaged by removing the filter from the light path. A motorized z-axis stage and full software control suite simplify multidimensional image acquisition .
The Department of Biological Sciences' Hitachi H500 Transmission electron microscope is located in the facility. Department members needing transmission electron microscopy should contact Alan Siegel  in advance.



All images acquired at the facility should be acknowledged when published. Publications using confocal images must acknowledge National Science Foundation MAJOR RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION Grant # DBI 0923133
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