Core Biotechnology Services

Locations

The purpose of the AIF is to provide researchers and students with advanced imaging equipment and image analysis software for their research. A fee is charged for use of the facility to cover running of the facility. The facility is spread over several locations within the college.

In most cases the facility manager will train you to operate the equipment yourself. In some cases he will operate the microscope for you, for example if imaging is only required for a small number of samples. Alternatively, research collaborations are also possible. The manager can also support with troubleshooting, give advice for experimental design, give advice for grant applications and give support and advice for image analysis.

The facility manager has extensive experience in the use of ImageJ/Fiji as well as commercial image processing, visualization and analysis software packages. Image analysis computers can be found in Henry Wellcome Building, Maurice Shock Building and Robert Kilpatrick Clinical Sciences Building. 

Henry Wellcome Building

The Henry Wellcome Building (HWB) light microscopy facility is on the 3rd floor, room 3/51. This facility consists of three rooms, an image analysis room and two microscope rooms.

The image analysis room has PCs with NIS-Elements, Huygens Deconvolution, Imaris 3D/4D reconstruction software, Akoya inForm software and ImageJ/Fiji.

The Zeiss LSM980 Airyscan2, purchased in 2019 on BBSRC grant; BB/S019510/1 (lead applicant Dr James Higgins), the Zeiss Elyra 7 Lattice SIM2, purchased in 2024 on BBSRC grant; BB/X019705/1 (lead applicant Dr Yolanda Markaki) and a Nikon Eclipse Ti-E microscope purchased in 2009 (BBSRC grant from Dr. Kayoko Tanaka) are also housed in this facility.

History

The first three Nikon TE300 inverted fluorescence microscopes were purchased in 2001 funded by grants from the Wellcome Trust to Professor Andrew Fry and from the BBSRC to Dr. Raj Patel. In 2006 a Leica TCS SP5 confocal laser scanning microscope was added to the facility, funded by a Wellcome Trust Equipment Grant to Professor Andrew Fry (lead applicant). This was the start of the AIF.

Hodgkin Building

The Nikon C1Si confocal laser scanning microscope (SRIF, 2009) is housed in the shared microscope room 318.

Maurice Shock Building

The Maurice Shock Building (MSB) houses an image analysis room and three microscope rooms.

Room 340 is the image analysis room with 4 PC for Huygens Deconvolution, Imaris 3D/4D reconstruction software, Akoya inForm software, ScanR high content analysis software and ImageJ/Fiji, including SRRF analysis.

Room 383 houses a Nikon Eclipse Ti-E microscope, including JOBS software for automated image acquisition (SRIF funding 2009).

Room 385 is a microscope room housing the Olympus FV1000 confocal laser scanning microscope, an Olympus IX81 microscope with Inscoper software and a cytological/karyotyping system installed on an Olympus BX61 automated microscope. All three systems where funded in 2007 by a Wolfson Foundation grant to Professor A. Brooks (lead applicant).

Room 388 houses the VisiTech HAWK system, a 3D array confocal microscope funded by the University Equipment Fund (2015; Dr Kees Straatman, lead applicant)

Robert Kilpatrick Clinical Sciences Building

Robert Kilpatrick Clinical Sciences Building (RKCSB) houses two Akoya slide scanners. The PhenoImager (Vectra Polaris) funded by the University Equipment Fund and LD3 in 2018 (lead applicant Dr Kees Straatman) and the PhenoCycler Fusion system funded by MRC grant MR/X012107/1 in 2022 (lead applicant Dr Gareth Miles). The RKCSB is a ten minutes walking distance away from the main campus. The systems can be found in equipment room 533.

In the image analysis room on the 5th floor of the RKCSB, run by the Leicester Cancer Research Centre, additional licenses for the inForm software can be found. This facility gives also access to VisioPharm digital pathology software.

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