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Deconvolution Microscope Facility
Reminder: SWEHSC Investigators (including their staff and students) should contact the Cellular Imaging Shared Service directly for advice regarding experimental design, training, and technical support for this instrument.
The DeltaVision RT Restoration Microscopy System (Applied Precision, Inc) includes a research-grade inverted Olympus IX 70 microscope (with a cooled CCD camera, fiber-optic coupled mercury arc lamp, high-speed filter changers, electronic shutters and a high precision x-y-z positioning system) that is coupled to a computer workstation running Linux and vendor-supplied software called SoftWorX. Automated multiple wavelength and/or time lapse imaging experiments can be performed on either fixed tissues or cultured cells (using the BiopTechs Delta-T Live Cell system).
Advantages: high resolution fluorescence images, capable of 2D and 3D time-lapse, lower light intensity (compared to a confocal laser) means it is friendlier to live cells, has a greater dynamic range (4096 intensity levels) compared to older confocals, up to 5 probes per data set (limited to the available filter sets).
Disadvantages: Users must pay close attention to the many issues related to obtaining high-resolution images (e.g., correct coverslip thickness, refractive index of mounting media, how close the specimen is to the coverslip, etc), deconvolving a stack of images takes time (as image size and/or the number of images in a stack increases, so does processing time) which is billed at the above mentioned hourly rate.
Training: Users must complete a minimum of 3 hours of training time before they will be allowed to use the instrument without assistance. Cost is currently $25 per hour.
Routine use: Investigators will be charged a fee of $25 per hour for time on the instrument (microscope use and/or computation are currently the same fee).
