SERVICESMicroscopy & imaging expertise and technical support for SWEHSC investigators, their staff and students.
Page menu: Contacts Doug Cromey, M.S., Facility Core Manager  |
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Cellular Imaging
The Cellular Imaging Facility Core provides members of the SWEHSC with both routine and advanced capabilities in the visualization, quantitation and interpretation of structural and in situ molecular alterations to tissues and cells following exposure to toxicants.
The Specific Aims of the Cellular Imaging Facility Core include providing:
- Instrumentation and expertise for specialized imaging techniques
- Expertise in experimental design and implementation of morphological techniques
- Quantitative structural analysis and interpretation of morphological alterations
- Training, consultation and technical assistance for users
- Standard microscopic services
We work closely with several of the imaging facilities provided by the Arizona Research Labs - Division of Biotechnology, the Arizona Cancer Center and departments in the College of Medicine to ensure that SWEHSC investigators have access to high quality instrumentation and first-class customer service.
Omics is a neologism that has been used in biology to reference specific fields of study (e.g., genomics). The SWEHSC Cellular Imaging Facility Core draws from several different "Omes".
Cellomics: 1. the study of cells. What is in them, on them, around them, and between them. How they eat, sleep, grow, learn, react, and die. How they complete tasks and work as a team by signaling, influencing, stimulating, inhibiting and sometimes destroying each other. 2. The knowledge of cellular phenotype and function. A set of information about the relationships between all cellular components and how they work together in context, collected with a validated, automated “systems biology” approach. (Source: Thermo Scientific). This term is often applied to high-content screening, but is not limited to HCS.
Cytomics: is the study of cell systems (cytomes) at a single cell level. It combines all the bioinformatic knowledge to attempt to understand the molecular architecture and functionality of the cell system (Cytome). Much of this is achieved by using molecular and microscopic techniques that allow the various components of a cell to be visualized as they interact in vivo (Source: Wikipedia). This term is used almost synonymously with flow cytometry and cell sorting.
Other proposed Omics that could be used to describe the type of work done in this Facility Core include Organellomics, Tissue-omics and Histocytomics.
