Deconvolution Microscope Facility

Reminder: SWEHSC Investigators (including their staff and students) should contact the Cellular Imaging Facility Core directly for advice regarding experimental design, training, and technical support for this instrument.

Instrument Capabilities:

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 & Disadvantages

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.

Fees

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).