About us
We maintain 2 confocal microscopes, 2 electron microscopes, and several sample preparation labs. Detail specification and manuals are on the Equipment page.
The Biology Imaging Facility is a cost center and expenses are recovered through hourly charges. The rates has been approved by Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA) on Feb 7 2006 and revised in Jan 2016. The Facility is open to any department or unit affiliated with the University of Washington. External users are also welcomed. Please contact us for more information.
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.
Recent announcements
You can always refer to the posting on the mailing list archive for details.
09/12/2016
- Pang will be out of the office on the following days and with limited email access. The Imaging Facility will continue to operate on normal schedule.
- September 8–20, 2016
- October 17–18, 2016
Facility policy
General
- University facilities, computers, computer access systems, telephones, and equipment must only be used for University business-related purposes. (links to usage guidelines at UW)
- All equipments are open to any University of Washington department or unit.
- Users must be trained and evaluated by Facility staff before they are allowed to operate any equipment.
- Damage to any equipment will be charged to the users, including all labor and parts cost in addition to hourly charges.
- The facility is not responsible for the loss of data on any of our equipment. Files left on our computers will be kept for about a month, shorter if we run out of space. You are strongly advised to transfer the data to your computer, validate, and backup your data as soon as possible.
- Policy violations will affect your eligibility to use the equipment.
Scheduling
- All the microscopes and prep lab are on our Google calendar reservation sytem, available to all trained users.
- There is no limit to the duration of each session; however, the Facility Coordinator will have the option of reassigning any time slot to users with urgent need.
- If you do not show up within 30 min of your scheduled time, it will be considered a "no-show" and the time slot will be open to any user.
- Please allow time for file transfer if you collect multi-GB files, the next user has the option to pause any file transfer which you can resume later.
- If you finish early or decide not to use your appointment, please update the schedule accordingly so other users will know the equipment is available.
- Cancellation should be done at least 24 hours ahead of your appointment to allow for rescheduling; otherwise, we may charge you for the remainder of the time slot that we are unable to reschedule. The same applies to "no-shows".
Usage
- Users should complete the usage log for the specific equipment as required.
- Please clean up after your session. Anything left in the lab will be disposed of at your expense.
- Please do not alter any hardware or software configuration, and do not take any accessories or parts out of the lab, unless instructed by Facility staff.
Safety training
- Users must complete all required safety training before they are allowed to use the facility.
- Specific safety training and Personal Protective Equipment requirements are indicated in our Chemical Hygiene Plan Sample in PAA A059.
Acknowledgement
- You are encouraged to acknowledge "The Biology Imaging Facility at the University of Washington" in any publications involving data collected using the facility. Please also provide a reference (reprint, citation, or URI) for our record.
Rates
Revised rates approved by the Dean's Office on Jan 1, 2016
| Description | hourly rate1 | |
|---|---|---|
| regular | extended2 | |
| Olympus DSU CM | 30 | 15 |
| Leica TCS SP5 II LSCM | 38 | 15 |
| JEOL JSM-840A SEM | 42 | |
| Philips CM100 TEM | 65 | |
| sample preparation Lab | 35 | |
| other light microscopy and misc. equipment | 3 | |
| consumables | at cost | |
| Training and assistance3 | 60 | |
1 external users are also welcomed, please contact us for more information
2 for sessions after 6PM and before 9AM, weekends, or any sessions in excess of 6 hours
3 this is in addition to the hourly rate of the equipment; microscope training usually consists of 2 3-hour sessions and other equipement trainings can be 30 min. to an hour
Where is the Imaging Facility?
Direction
We are located on the south side of Central campus in the basement of the Physics Astronomy Auditorium. You can also get to the facility through the basement of Kincaid (see the floor plan below).
Driving directions to the UW Seattle campus are provided by Facility Services.
Please visit the Contact section below for our delivery address.
Floor plan
The rooms used by the facility are in grey (click here or on the image for a higher resolution picture).
Contact information
| Facility Coordinator: | Wai Chan |  |
| Email address: | wpchan@uw.edu | |
| Office location: | Physics Astronomy Building PAA A087 | |
| Postal address: (see below for alternate delivery address) |
University of Washington Department of Biology 24 Kincaid Hall #351800 Seattle, WA 98195 |
|
| Phone: | (206) 685-1519 |
Phone numbers for the facility
| Facility | Room # | Phone # |
| Leica SP5 II LSCM | A033 | (206) 543-5319 |
| Olympus DSU spinning disk confocal microscope | A065 | (206) 616-4958 |
| JEOL-840A SEM | A057 | none |
| Philips CM100 TEM | A071 | (206) 616-4273 |
| Specimen preparatory lab | A059 & A061 | none |
Delivery of large items
- oversized items i.e., with both width and length greater than 36" (91 cm), can use the Physics Astronomy loading dock at 3910 15th Ave NE
- follow the red arrow to get to the Biology sector in the Physics Astronomy Auditorium basement from the loading dock
