The Carol Moss Spivak Cell Imaging Facility is currently setup to perform confocal and 2-photon laser-scanning microscopy for members of the UCLA biomedical community.  The Facility has a  Leica TCS SP MP Inverted Confocal Microscope, a Leica TCS-SP MP Fixed-Stage Upright Confocal Microscope and a Carl Zeiss LSM 310 Laser Scanning Confocal microscope.   These microscopes are housed in the California NanoSystems Institute, B145.

The Leica Microscopes have three lasers each, an argon, a krypton, and a helium-neon which are connected to the microscopes by a fiber optic and produce laser excitation lines at 476 (near blue) 488 (blue), 568 (yellow) and 633 (far red) nm. These microscopes are also connected via fiber optic to a A Spectra-Physics Integrated Two-Photon Laser System comprises a Millenia-X-P solid state laser and a Model 3941-M Tsunami Ti:Sapphire laser. The Millenia is a high power, diode pumped solid state laser that can produce >10W continuous power at 532nm. The Tsunami is a regeneratively mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser and is used in the picosecond configuration.  This combination can be tuned to deliver a pulsed tunable infrared beam anywhere between 780 and 900 nm for two photon excitation.*  The systems are equipped with three reflectance/fluorescence photomultiplier/ detectors and one transmitted light detector.  Simultaneous use of the 2-photon laser by both microscopes is possible provided that the users of each microscope setup can use the same infrared beam wavelength.

The Zeiss instrument is equipped with two lasers, an external argon ion blue laser (488/514 nm) for excitation of green fluorophores such as FITC, and a helium-neon green laser (543 nm) for excitation of red fluorophores such as rhodamine and Texas Red. This instrument has  two reflectance/fluorescence photomultiplier/ detectors and one for transmitted light.

The Facility also has a Tektronix 440 Phaser dye sublimation printer for color print output and a Lasergraphics Personal LFR Plus film graphics recorder for 35 mm slide output.

Some equipment is also available for setting up physiological experiments with the confocal and 2-photon scanning microscopes.  These include an Axon Instruments Axopatch 200B Patch Amplifier, a Burleigh micromanipulator, and a Hammamatsu video camera for IR-DIC imaging.

Dr. Matt Schibler is in charge of the operation and upkeep of the facility. Please contact him at x31077 (310-983-1077 off campus) or by E-mail  alms@cnsi.ucla.edu to be trained in the use of the microscope or to assist you in examining your specimens.

     *The 2-Photon laser system produces 10.5 W of 532 nm green light from the Millenia laser and 7.5 W of INVISIBLE infrared laser beam radiation and both lasers are Class IV.  To use these lasers, you will be required to sign a use consent form and agree to abide by the facility rules for safe use.

Workshops In Fluorescence and Laser Scanning Microscopy

Charges:*

Contact Dr. Matt Schibler