Services

The Cellular Imaging Shared Service does not directly operate it's own service facilities. We decided early on that reproducing what was already available on campus would simply be too expensive. We do provide management and/or oversight for several of the facilities that we use (in exchange for partial salary support for Mr. Cromey). We have also been involved in acquiring new instruments that meet the needs of our investigators, as well as the larger campus community.

The advantage for SWEHSC center members, their staff, and students, is that the Shared Service is available to assist you in the details of using the campus microscopy-related facilities. We can assist with experimental design, sample preparation, interacting with core facility staff (troubleshooting), instrument operation and/or training, image analysis (measurements) and interpretation, figure layout, and write-ups for articles and/or grant applications. Without the Shared Service, center members would be on their own to work through the jargon, learning new technologies and troubleshooting protocols & procedures.

Center members still pay the regular fees to the specific facilities (operated by CBA, ARL, AZCC, etc), however, there are no additional consultation fees for the extensive hands-on assistance that the Cellular Imaging Shared Service provides.

Full-service labs

The following labs provide beginning-to-end services for users. Fee schedules are available online for these labs.

• CBA Histology Service Lab - paraffin and frozen section histology and special stains
• ARL Electron Microscopy facilities (USIF - Main Campus) and (AHSC) - transmission and scanning electron microscopy
• ARL/AZCC Cytometry Shared Service - flow cytometry and cell sorting

Equipment

Some facilities only provide access to advanced equipment and training for users wanting to operate the instruments. Fee schedules are available for the labs.

• ARL Confocal Microscope facility - advanced multiphoton/confocal fluorescence microscope with spectral imaging capabilities
• COM Deconvolution Microscope Facility - uses a computational method to achieve high-resolution images, ideal for low-light samples
• CBA Image Acquisition and Analysis workstation - mutifunction inverted microscope with greyscale CCD camera. Workstation can be used to measure digital images from any source.

Training for individuals from labs affiliated with the SWEHSC

The Shared Service manager, Doug Cromey, has many years of experience with a number of different types of microscopy and can provide one-on-one training for many of these instruments. In addition, Mr. Cromey can provide training in working with digital images, either for analysis or for assembling images for publication.

Other labs & equipment related to microscopy or imaging

There are a number of campus facilities that are not directly related to this Shared Service that still may be of interest to SWEHSC investigators and their labs. Within the limits of our expertise, we would be happy to assist you in working with these labs.