Attention Users: The University Imaging Centers will shortly be undergoing a number of changes:
- Our BIPL branch will be moving from its present location in 1-205 Nils Hasselmo Hall into newly remodeled space on the first floor of Jackson Hall the week of Oct. 3, 2011. We will be diconnecting insturmentation on October 3 and plan to be fully operational by the end of the week. However, please do NOT count on access to instruments during that week without first checking with Mark Sanders or BIPL staff. Our St. Paul location will remain fully operational and will be available to help provide services during the transition.
- The new location for BIPL will be in the North-wing of Jackson Hall with the staff office located in 1-151 Jackson Hall. Entrances will be from either the stairs or elevator located on the North end of the 2nd floor Jackson down to the first floor.
- As a result of the move, users with existing U-card access to BIPL will have access. New users will need to apply for access at http://www.ahcrbms.umn.edu/policies/ucard/home.html.
- We have recieved funding for serveral million dollars worth of new imaging systems for the Twin Cities campuses, including a new IVIS Spectrum whole-animal imaging system that is due for installation in Jackson Hall on Oct. 5. Formal training from the vendor or our staff during the week of October 17th. We will be happy to train users on the system after that.
- We are also purchasing a Carestream In Vivo FX Pro imager to be located on the fourth floor of the MTRF building. It will allow x-ray, bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging, (though it will not be as sensitive as the IVIS Spectrum for the latter two). We will send out a notice when we have installation and training dates for that system.
- And finally, we are happy to announce that Guillermo Marques Ph.D., our new Assisstant Director, will be arriving at the end of October. Dr. Marques brings strong expertise in developmental biology, live-cell imaging, in particular using FLIM and FRET.
- For this information and a map of our new Jackson Hall facility please have a look here.
We look forward to working with everyone as we provide the University of Minnesota with exceptional and affordable resources in optical imaging.
Microwave Processing Workshop
April 25-27, 2012
The University Imaging Centers would like to invite you to attend the 2012 Microwave Processing Workshop.
The 3-day workshop will focus on new techniques in microwave specimen processing for microscopy.
- In vivo Labeling
- Principles of Microwave Fixation for Biological Materials
- Principles of Immunolocalization for Fluorescence Microscopy and Electron Microscopy
For more information check out the Microwave Processing Workshop event page.
Olympus BioScapes 2011
Deadline for new entries September 30, 2011.
You're invited to submit several of your images and/or digital video clips to the 2011 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition, which will honor extraordinary microscope images of life science subjects.
Up to five images or videos can be entered via the internet. Entries for the contest can be uploaded through a web browser directly to the Olympus servers.
The winners of the competition are tentatively scheduled to be published in Scientific American. A not about the contest: First prize will be Olympus microscope or camera equipment valued at $5,000. Nine additional winners will also receive valuable prizes from Olympus. Each person entering can submit up to five movies, images, or image sequences.
It is not necessary for people entering the competition to be users of Olympus equipment. Winners will be notified in late October, and publicly announced in November, 2011.
Leica Histology Slide Scanning System Demo
The week of September 26th.
The fastest, most reliable and most flexible way to scan, share, and analyze your microscope slides. Please join us for a seminar/workshop to see the latest technologies and innovations to SCAN, SHARE and ANALYZE slides (please feel free to bring your own slides.)
For specific seminar and demonstration times please have a look at the flyer.
Cryo Electron Microscopy Short Course - IPrime Nanostructural Materials and Processes Program
Wednesday - Friday, July 13-15, 2011.
- Keller Hall 3-180 - University of Minnesota
- Instructors inlcude Jayesh Bellare, Ishi Talmon, Joe Zasadzinski with laboratory experiences led by Wei Zhang, Chris Frethem with many more staff scientists showing correlative methods.
This Short course will enable industrial and academic scientists and engineers, with no prior knowledge of electron micrscopy, to gain insight into cry-techniques to image nanostructures in liquids, soft materials, and biological systems. After attending the course you will be better able to assess what experiments are feasible for samples of interest to you, and to estimate the benefits and cost of these approaches.
For more information on the course as well as the details on registration please have a look at the flyer.
In Vivo Biophotonic Imaging: Discovery at the Speed of Light
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 10:30am.
- 1-250 Nils Hasselmo Hall, Twin Cities Campus
- Presented by Vivek Shinde Patil, Ph.D.
In Vivo optical imaging of living organisms provides researchers with a non-invasive, highly sensitive tool for monitoring and collecting critical biological data in vitro, in vivo, or ex vivo. Please join us for a presentation of current applications and recent data generated using the IVIS suite of optical imagers from Caliper Life Sciences.
For more information here is the flyer.
Contact: Mark Sanders. msanders@umn.edu
Image Processing Using MATLAB
Thursday, June 23, 2011, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
MATLAB is a general computational platform for rapid development of programs. It also has several toolboxes that allow specialized computation on images. One such toolbox, the Image Processing Toolbox, has hundreds of functions that can be used to perform operations on images.
The various image processing operations can be classified in to reading, processing and writing images. We will begin the tutorial by performing simple image reading operations on jpeg, gif, etc. We will also discuss reading comples image formats like DICOM. We will then perform various image processing operations like filtering, visualization and analysis. We will then output these images to different formats to be read by other applications.
We will finally conclude with hands-on practice using various example images. You are also welcome to bring specific questions and problems that you would like to discuss.
- Level: Advanced
- Prerequisites: MATLAB programming and basic image processing
Registration procedures and deadlines
Registration for the tutorials and workshops will be scheduled on a first-requested, first-served basis. These classes often fill up quickly. Due to limited space, we encourage you to register only if you are able to commit to the full length of the tutorial. To reserve a place for an upcoming tutorial, please visit the MSI tutorial page:
http://www.msi.umn.edu/tutorial
Click the register button and fill out the online form to register.
Quantitative Imaging: From Cells to Molecules
October 24 - November 6, 2011. Application Deadline: July 15, 2011.
This course will focus on advanced quantitative fluorescence microscopy techniques used for imaging a range of biological specimens, from cells to single molecules. The course is designed for cell and molecular biologists with little or no microscopy experience, who wish to begin utilizing micrscopy in their own research. Students will gain a theoretical undertanding of, and hands-on experience with, state-of-the-art equipment used in quantitative fluorescence microscopy, including: laser scanning and spinning disk confocal microscopy, deconvolution methods, total internal fluorescence microscopy (TIRF), super-resolution methods (structured illumination, STORM, and PALM), and digital image processing and analysis. Students will use the techniques to address specific quantitative questions and then discuss the results as a group, learning to troubleshoot the common problems that occur in the course of a quantitative imaging experiment. Among the lectures presented are: micrscopy basics, CCD cameras, confocal microscopy, multi-photon microscopy, deconvolution, TIRF, single molecule imaging, imaging ratio-metric "biosensors" (including FRET), and super-resolution techniques. Students will also learn immunofluorescence in tissue culture cells, choosing fluorescent proteins, working with live samples requiring environmental control, and more.
For more information you can visit the course site at http://meetings.cshl.edu/courses/c-qicm11.shtml
Attention: Our Scheduling link has changed; Please update your bookmarks
We are in the process of combining the St. Paul Imaging Center and the Biomedical Imaging Processing Laboratory into the University Imaging Centers (UIC). As part of this process, we are merging and improving our websites including our reservation systems.
Please take a moment and visit our Equipment Reservation page to update your bookmarks with the new link.
Thank you,
UIC Staff
Attention: HAWK forms are being replaced
Today 10/1/10 our HAWK forms used for Poster Submission and A/V Requests will be decomissioned and we will be going live with our new forms.
Our new system utilizes the umsurvey format. The information and format will remain largely similar to the HAWK form. Please read over the forms closely and take a moment to familiarize with the new format.
If you have any questions or run into any problems please contact us at 612-624-3454.
We are also available for answering questions via email:
- Mark Sanders - msanders@umn.edu
- Gail Celio - celio001@umn.edu
- Alex Cramer - crame051@umn.edu
New Equipment - BioStation IM
The Biomedical Image Processing Lab (BIPL) is expecting to have a live cell imaging system, the BioStation IM, delivered and installed about the second week of November. The BioStation IM is a compact cell incubation and monitoring system that allows users with minimal microscopy experience to conduct live cell imaging. The BioStation IM facilitates a broad array of long term time-lapse experiments, including studies of cell growth, morphology, and protein expression, by providing consistent environmental control of temperature, humidity and gas concentration in combination with phase and fluorescence imaging.
For additional information check out the PDF here.
Greetings,
To meet the growing biomedical imaging needs of the University research community, the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) and Academic Health Center/Medical School have merged the Biomedical Image Processing Lab (BIPL) and the Imaging Center (IC). The new entity, the University Imaging Centers (UIC), will focus on optical imaging, especially in vitro and live cell imaging, and provide related electron microscopic and computational technologies and expertise.
Mark Sanders has been appointed program director. Michael O'Connor, head of the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, and Timothy Ebner, head of the Department of Neuroscience, will supervise operations. We are forming a University-Wide faculty steering committee to evaluate user needs, prioritize equipment acquisition and upgrades, recommend future staffing, identify funding opportunities, and promote cutting-edge research.
Our goals will be to:
- Maximize the availability of advanced imaging technologies and methodologies to faculty, staff, students and external users.
- Bring expertise in new imaging technologies to users.
- Educate the University community about new imaging technologies.
- Promote interaction between developers of new imaging technology and potential users.
The first floor of Jackson Hall is being remodeled to house the Minneapolis facilities thanks to a $3.4 million NIH G20 grant secured by several departments and programs. Construction begins in September and will be completed in February 2011. Please watch for details.
Meanwhile, services will continue uninterrupted in their current locations during the same hours and we will begin to expand services at both locations. Transportation is now offered to deliver samples to both centers. Please see the Imaging Center web site at http://www.cbs.umn.edu/ic/ or the BIPL web site at http://bipl.umn.edu/ for information. The Web sites will be merged under the new name in the near future.
We look forward to working with all of you as we provide the University of Minnesota with essential, affordable and exceptional resources in microscopy..
Robert Elde, dean, College of Biological Sciences
Frank Cerra, dean, Medical School
Tim Ebner, department head, Neuroscience
Mike O'Connor, department head, Genetics, Cell Biology and Development
Infrastructure Investment Initiative ("I3')
In his report to the regents at the July 7 meeting, President Bruininks announced a major Infrastructure Investment Initiative ("I3") intended to address research infrastructure needs critical to the University's continued competitiveness and progress towards its strategic research objectives. Funding for the I3 program, expected to top $20 million, will be targeted at significant investments for shared resources that support high-end research needs, including major equipment purchases and support for highly trained technical personal needed to support major research equipment or to provide critical expertise in support of complex research areas. This initiative will also provide funding for infrastructure needed to support scholarship in the arts and humanities (e.g., community art production, performance areas, and technical equipment).
A formal Request for Proposals (RFP) will be ussed in late August, with application deadlines near the end of fall semester.
Please contact Mark Sanders prior to August 24, 2010 to be part of the coordinated effort to support the shared resources in biomedical ultrastructural imaging.
Optical Imaging Journal Club
With the development of super-resolution methods, fluorescent proteins, and a huge variety of imaging improvements, this may be one of the most exciting times in history to be an optical microscopist. Not surprisingly, at the Imaging Open House in May, interest was expressed in having a journal club organized around current topics in imaging.
In response to that interest, we are starting an Optical Imaging Journal Club. The purpose will be to provide a forum for graduate students, postdoc's, faculty and staff to discuss articles and developments that have recently appeared in the imaging literature. The focus will usually be on methods, but will include general imaging studies as well as purely methodological papers.
Our first meeting will be Thursday July 1 at 1:30pm in 13 Snyder Hall, St. Paul Campus, in the Imaging Center. We will discuss Bo Huang's brief review, "Super-resolution optical microscopy: multiple choices" that appeared in Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 14:10-14, 2010. To download the article, please click here.
Initially, we'll plan future meetings once every two to four weeks and alternating between meeting in BIPL and in Saint Paul Imaging Center.
We hope to see you there!
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