SHARED UCI ACCESS RESOURCES

Leica SP8 Falcon + coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS)

This customized commercial imaging platform features the following modalities: confocal fluorescence and two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) microscopy, second harmonic generation (SHG), CARS and fluorescence lifetime microscopy. The state-of-the-art imaging system was recently acquired through a high-end shared instrumentation grant. Support for this shared resource is provided by UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic, UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UCI Skin Biology Resource Center.

System Specifications:

  • InSight X3 laser (dual output: 680-1300 nm, 120 fs; 1045 nm, 170 fs; 80 MHz, Spectra-Physics)
  • Cw lines and a white-light laser source for confocal fluorescence microscopy, which consists of a high-energy pulsed IR-fiber laser that is fed through a photonic crystal fiber to generate a spectral continuum
  • Upright microscopy configuration with a sample staging area that allows for maximum flexibility in terms of sample handling
  • Tandem scanner 8kHz
  • One internal detector channel (PMT), four internal non-descanned detector channels (GaAsP-HyD), which are specifically designed for maximum throughput and optimized for nonlinear optical (NLO) imaging
  • DIVE detection method, allowing exquisite control over selecting a particular spectral band, while suppressing background contributions
  • FALCON detector – one of the fastest FLIM detectors commercially available
  • Frame sizes of up to 8192 x 8192 pixels, featuring a rapid mosaic stitching algorithm that synchronizes the scanning mirrors with the motorized sample translation stage

Zeiss LSM 510 Meta microscopy system

 The imaging system serves as a shared resource for the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and UCI Skin Biology Resource Center.

 System Specifications:

  • Mode-locked Ti: Sapphire laser (170 fs pulse width, 690-1040 nm tuning range, Chameleon Ultra, Coherent, Inc.)
  • Zeiss Axiovert 200M inverted microscope
  • 6 lines for confocal scanning 458/477/488/514/532/633 nm
  • Up to 4 channels parallel detection
  • Scanning speed of up to 5 frames/second for acquisition of 512×512-pixel images
  • Motorized X-Y stage with mark and find and tile scan functions and fast piezo objective focus for Z drive with 25 nm smallest
  • User-defined region of interest (ROI)
  • Multiple acquisition modes, such as spot, line, frame, Z-stack, lambda stack or time series
  • Polychromatic 32-channel detector (META detector), providing spectral separation of fluorophores within the same sample by spectral fingerprinting and linear unmixing algorithms

ADDITIONAL NONLINEAR OPTICAL MICROSCOPY (NLOM) LABORATORY RESOURCES:

Bench-top prototype of a rapid, large field-of-view multiphoton microscopy (MPM) imaging platform 
referred to as fast, large area multiphoton exoscope (FLAME)

System Specifications:

  • Fs fiber laser (100 fs, 780 nm, Carmel780, Calmar)
  • Galvo/resonant scanning system
  • Two photomultiplier tube detectors employed for parallel acquisition of SHG and TPEF signals
  • Emission filter TPEF channel: 450 – 700 nm, emission filter SHG channel: 390 – 410 nm
  • Objective: Olympus 25X, 1.05NA water immersion
  • Pixel dwell time max 0.3 μs (effective pixel dwell time: max 2.5 μs)
  • Laser power after objective 10-60mW
  • Custom software designed for data collection

Clinical MPM-based imaging system (MPTflex, JenLab GmbH, Germany)

System Specifications: 

  • Laser source: Ti:Sapphire oscillator (MaiTai, Spectra-Physics, Mountain View, CA), tunable 690-1040 nm, sub-100 fs, 80MHz
  • Articulated arm with near infrared (NIR) optics and beam scanning module
  • Photomultiplier tube detectors employed for parallel acquisition of SHG and TPEF signals
  • Emission filter TPEF channel: 410 – 650 nm and emission filter SHG channel: 385 – 405 nm
  • Objective:  Zeiss 40X, 1.3NA oil immersion
  • Pixel dwell time 22 μs
  • Laser power after objective 2-50mW
  • Software designed for clinical data collection

Please contact Amanda Durkin at afdurkin@hs.uci.edu and Mihaela Balu at mbalu@hs.uci.edu if you are interested in using any of these imaging systems.