Bioimaging

Our bioimaging facilities were created jointly by the Wellcome Trust and the University.

The instruments are employed in a variety of different projects, including studies of inflammatory diseases, stem cell biology, diabetes, neuroscience and developmental biology.

To use Bioimaging facilities please contact Adrian Rogers (A.T.Rogers@bath.ac.uk).

Confocal laser scanning microscopes

The Confocal laser scanning microscopes enable researchers to create detailed 3D pictures of cell organelles and to examine ‘live’ cells through incubation systems that facilitate the study of cellular changes over time.

MAS houses two Zeiss confocal laser scanning microscopes.

LSM510META

The Zeiss LSM510META features include:

• 4 lasers including a 405nm blue diode laser.
• A META scanning module with 2 single channel detectors & a polychromatic 32-channel detector for fast aquisition of lambda stacks & metatracking.
• Software that allows emission fingerprinting for crosstalk-free multiple-fluorescence images with fast simultaneous excitation.
• An environmental chamber fitted to the microscope allowing control of the environment surrounding the sample under study.

LSM510

The Zeiss LSM510 features include:

• 3 lasers: Argon 488nm, HeNe 543nm and HeNe 633nm.
• Four confocal fluorescent channels with short efficient beam paths.
• Software allowing multitracking.

Flow cytometry

The Becton Dickinson flow cytometer FACSCanto™ features include:

• True 6-color capability and high sensitivity optics.
• Fixed optical alignment - so no lengthy alignment is required before analysis.

A Becton Dickinson FACs Aria III for cell sorting will shortly be added to the Bioimaging facilities.

High content imaging and analysis (HCA)

HCA combines cell biology with automated high-resolution microscopy and data evaluation.

It is used for the detailed study of cellular mechanisms and interactions in multiple samples, for example, studying whether cell division, motility, or protein entry is affected when cells are exposed to external stimuli such as chemical inhibitors.

Information generated using HCA is highly valuable in the study of complex diseases, including cancer and infectious diseases. In drug discovery research, the throughput gained using HCA makes it a valuable technology for drug target identification.

The GE Healthcare IN Cell Analyzer 2000 features include:

• A flexible, modular, lamp based cellular and subcellular imaging system.
• Automated imaging in fixed and live cells.
• High performance hardware and state of the art software for cell analysis.

Concord calcium imaging system

This instrument allows the ratiometric and photometric analysis of calcium changes in real time, in cell populations and regions of interest including individual cells and subcellular compartments. Drugs of interest may be perfused over cells maintained in a temperature-controlled chamber.

A Sector Imager Plate Reader

The MSD SECTOR Imager 6000 features include:

• An ultra-low noise charge-coupled device (CCD) camera with custom-designed telecentric lenses for rapid detection in all MULTI-ARRAY® or MULTI-SPOT® plates
• Reduced consumption of reagents due to simple no-wash formats using multiplexing biomarkers and cytokines or screening kinases, ubiquitin ligases, integrins or GPCRs.