Light Microscopy Core Facility
Acquired on "Toothless," the LifeCanvas SmartSPIM light sheet, this is a 2-color volume image of a mouse brain. Photo credit: Diane Bissen, Postdoc, Turrigiano Lab
Primary rat hippocampal cultures acquired on the Zeiss LSM880. Photo credit: Rabia Anjum, PhD student, Paradis Lab
Acquired on "Dagahra," the Nikon AX-R, these are contractile asters with core-cortex structure sculpted from a 3-D isotropic cytoskeletal composite consisting of active microtubules (magenta), kinesin-1 motors (cyan) and passive actin network (green). Photo credit: Quang Tran, postdoctoral fellow, Fraden Lab
Acquired on the Zeiss LSM880, this is a section of superior cervical ganglia stained for S100b (green) and Map2 (blue). The image shows clear glial envelopes around cells and wrapped around neuronal fibers running through the sample longitudinally and cross-sectionally. Photo credit: Ellie Greene, undergraduate student, Birren Lab
Acquired on the Zeiss LSM880, these are sympathetic neurons (green-AlexaFluor 488), cardiomyocytes (red-AlexaFluor 549), and nuclei (DAPI), isolated from neonatal Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). Photo credit: Petra Dujmic, undergraduate student, Birren Lab
The Brandeis Light Microscopy facility provides instrumentation, training and support in the acquisition and analysis of data using state of the art imaging equipment.
The facility was renovated in 2020 to provide a space dedicated to housing high-end imaging systems. The facility also includes an analysis suite with computers that have licensed image analysis programs installed. All systems housed within the main facility are connected via 10GbE connections to our internal storage server, and by fiber-optics to the 3 analysis workstations. There is ample space within the facility for sample preparation.
Use of the Brandeis Light Microscopy Facility can be acknowledged with our Research Resource Identifier RRID:SCR_025892.
Equipment
The Brandeis Light Microscopy Facility is home to a variety of high-end instrumentation. Each system is housed in its own generously sized bay.
Access, Training and Policies
Learn about accessing the Light Microscopy Core Facility equipment, training requirements, access for external users and more.
Publications
Explore recent publications acknowledging use of the Brandeis Light Microscopy Facility.
Every year, the Brandeis community competes in the Light Microscopy Core Facility image competition. Users submit their best art captured using facility microscopes and the winners are selected, printed and displayed in the facility.