Facility Details

ALMS is a Leica Microsystems Center for Excellence and provides microscopy services, consultation, and support for the application of novel microscopic and spectroscopic methods and advanced image analysis techniques for the study of macromolecules, cellular dynamics and nano-scale characterization of bio-materials. The facility provides a collection of high-level, customized biological fluorescence microscopes and small-animal imaging devices that provide the ability to study biological processes with high spatial and temporal resolution in whole organisms and in living cells down to the single molecule detection level with nanometer-accuracy. Located on the basement and second floors of the CNSI building, two optical suites of 1,000 square feet each were specifically designed to house our microscopes with the required environment control (low vibration, air-filtered, air-conditioned to ±1°C and light-tight) and services. The facility currently provides the following services: Wide-field Fluorescence Imaging Microscopy (on a limited basis), Confocal One-Photon and Two-Photon Laser Scanning Microscopy, (both point scanning and spinning disk), Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS), Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), microscopic and macroscopic Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM) with Time-Correlated-Single-Photon-Counting (TCSPC) and Near-Infrared (NIR) Detection, Stimulated Emission Depletion laser-scanning microscopy (STED) (a super-resolution technique), both microscopic and macroscopic (small animal) spectral unmixing and laser capture microdissection.