The Imaging Facility

Content: About us • Recent announcements

We maintain several confocal microscopes, a super resolution live cell imaging microscope, 2 electron microscopes, and sample preparation labs.

• light microscopy
  • GE DeltaVision OMX SR: a super resolution live cell imaging microscope with structured illumination and TIRF
  • Leica SP5 II: a confocal laser scanning microscope with both conventional and resonant point scanners, 7 laser lines, and 4 spectral detectors; suitable for both fixed or live preparation; installed on an inverted stand with motorized stage to facilitate xyzλt and multi-location image acquistion; FRAP and FRET wizards, and ROI scan are available
  • Parrish lab Leica SP5 II on an upright stand: similar to the SP5 above but with fewer detectors and without a resonant scanner
  • Olympus IX81 with DSU: a spinning disc unit with slit apertures for live cell imaging using a high dynamic range EM-CCD camera with a stable Xenon plasma light source; installed on an inverted stand with motorized stage to facilitate xyzt and multi-location image acquistion
  • various compound and dissecting microscopes for photomicrography: Nikon Eclipse E600FN, Wild M8, and Zeiss Axio Zoom.V16
• electron microscopy
  • FEI Apreo VolumeScope: a scanning electron microscope for serial blockface imaging with back-scattered electron detectors in both high and low vacuum mode, typical images are 6144×4096 pixels with a resolution of 5 nm in XY and 40 nm in Z, the field of view is 31 µm × 20 µm
  • Philips CM100 transmission electron microscope: a biological TEM operating at 40 kV to 100 kV with better than 4 nm resolution, image can be captured with an Olympus Morada 11 megapixel digital camera up to 2672×3615 pixels, typical image at high magnification has a pixel size of 0.55 nm and the field of view is 1.46 µm × 1.98 µm
• ancillary labs for sample preparation.

The Biology Imaging Facility is a recharge center and expenses are recovered through hourly charges. The current rates have been approved by Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA) and the Dean's Office in June 2018. The Facility is open to any department or unit affiliated with the University of Washington. External users are also welcome.

All users are subscribed to the IF-forum mailing list to receive announcements from us on recent development and equipment availability. Users can also use the forum to discuss equipment usage or technique, and notify other users for schedule changes or cancellations. You can read the past postings here on the mailing list archive. To further encourage interactions among users, we organize a meeting every fall to introduce our microscopes and services to new members of the Dept and also to discuss any topics our users bring up e.g., sample preparation technique, imaging protocol, facility policy, etc. We have summaries of the past meetings.

Recent announcements

7/18/2019

• Pang will be off on the following days. The Facility will operate as usual. Please plan accordingly if you will need training or assistance.
  • July 23, 2019
  • August 1, 2019 AM

7/15/2019

• New rates for July 2019 to June 2020 are in effect.
• The OMX is scheduled to move to LSB B204 on July 15 and 16. We will expect the microscope to be available again after July 18.

6/01/2019

• Kincaid Hall is closed for renovation until 2021. Please see our location page for routes to the Imaging Facility.

3/12/2019

• OMX SR users: please acknowledge grant proposal S10 OD021490 on any publications that have used this microscope.

11/26/2018

• The FEI Apreo VolumeScope, a serial blockface SEM, is available.

7/1/2018

• Please use the URL on the Rates page to access the google form to log your usage of our equipment. The paper log has been retired!