Services and Equipment | The Institute of Medical Sciences

Services and Equipment

The Microscopy and Histology Core Facility has a wealth of knowledge and expertise to assist you with your research. We are available to work with researchers within the University of Aberdeen and also with external laboratories and commercial companies.

Services

Direct instrument use - we offer access to our equipment following training with facility staff.
Training – we can organise training on our equipment one to one or in small groups. We also run regular microscopy courses covering all the important information regarding the systems we have within our facility.
Consultancy and advice services – we can be contracted for consulting services to provide interpretation and analysis of data.
Research projects - we are able to carry out research for you. We can prepare samples, take images and produce data as required.

Equipment

Optical Microscopy and Light Sheet Microscopy

Now available in the IMS - ZEISS Lightsheet 7

A team led by Debbie Wilkinson were awarded a BBSRC ALERT22 grant to buy a light sheet microscope, a type of microscope not currently available in NE Scotland. The Zeiss Lightsheet 7 system is now available for booking!

This system allows imaging of cleared samples up to 2cm, (e.g. entire embryos, organoid cultures and adult rodent organs) and will have full environmental control to image live samples, plus 2 cameras for fast simultaneous imaging of 2 colours and 4 laser lines (405nm, 488nm, 561nm and 638nm).

If you are interested in using this new system or hearing more about what it can do for you, please contact Debbie debbie.wilkinson@abdn.ac.uk

	EVOS XL light microscope An all in one microscope with phase and colour brightfield imaging capabilities Samples can be viewed on slides or tissue culture plates
	EVOS M5000 fluorescence microscope 3 colour fluorescence, transmitted light and colour imaging Autofocus, z stack and time lapse imaging and single click multi channel capture Software for fast acquisition and analysis
	ZEISS AxioScan Z1 slide scanner An entire sample on a slide can be imaged, both brightfield and 4 colour fluorescence Up to 100 slides can be scanned in one batch
	ZEISS Imager M2 upright microscope (Nessie) A fully motorised filter turret and z focus Hamamatsu Flash 4 LT camera Fluorescence and phase contrast imaging
	ZEISS Axioscope 5 upright microscope (Kelpie) Brightfield imaging Zeiss 712 colour camera
	ZEISS stereo zoom microscope Dissecting microscope with Leica MC170 HD camera
	HoloMonitor Incubator tolerant phase imaging microscope Label free cell culture analysis
	ZEISS Axio Observer Z1 invert microscope (Haggis) Incubator for live cell work DIC and fluorescence imaging Motorised filters and Flash 4 camera Oil objectives for higher resolution imaging
	ZEISS Axio Observer Z1 invert microscope (Tatties) Fluorescence and phase contrast imaging Motorised filters and Zeiss 503 camera Long distance x20 and x40 objectives

Confocal Microscopy

ZEISS LSM880 confocal microscope + Airyscan Fast

Incubator for live cell work and motorised stage
Airyscan Fast gives an instant 4-8x improvement of signal to noise compared to normal confocal
Enhanced resolution in x, y and z with high acquisition speed

ZEISS LSM710 confocal microscope

Inverted confocal microscope
Motorised stage and a wide range of laser lines

Ultraview VoX spinning disk confocal microscope

Acquisition of images at a very high frame rate
Minimum illumination of samples for gentle imaging
Faster than point scanning confocal so good for live cell imaging

Electron Microscopy

	Leica UC6 and UC7T ultramicrotomes Ultrathin sectioning for TEM Sectioning onto grids, coverslips and wafers Cryoultramicrotomy available
	Ted Pella Biowave microwave tissue processor Rapid sample processing Microwave and vacuum function to enhance sample preparation
	Leica Empact 2/RTS high pressure freezer Cryo-fixation of samples for TEM Enhanced preservation of sample morphology
	Leica AFS2/FSP automated freeze substitution system Low temperature processing of TEM samples Preservation of epitopes for immuno TEM preparation
	Bal-Tec Critical Point Dryer For drying SEM samples
	Quorum Q150T ES Sputter Coater Capable of sputtering and carbon coating
	JEOL 1400 plus TEM AMT UltraVUE camera Advanced, user friendly TEM to allow visualisation of samples at high magnification Tomography allowing 3D visualisation of samples
	ZEISS EVO MA10 SEM Oxford INCA x-ray microanalysis An easy to use SEM with a magnification range of x20 – x50,000 Resolution is ~5nm in biological samples