The lab has exclusive access to four fluorescent microscope workstations:
- Olympus Fluoview FV1000 confocal microscope
- Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopes
- Nikon TE300 inverted microscope
- Equipped with multi-line argon (458, 488, 515 nm), green helium neon (543 nm), red helium neon (633 nm), and diode 405 nm laser lines with 775 nm DIC.
- High resolution spectral fluorescence detection (2nm wavelength resolution)
- Acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF)
- Three channel scan unit with detection system featuring hard coated filter base.
- SIM Scanner Unit combines the main scanner with a dedicated scanner light simulation scanner for investigating the trafficking of fluorescent labelled molecules and marking of specific cells; performs simultaneous laser light stimulation and imaging to acquire images of immediate cell responses to stimulation in photobleaching experiments.
Olympus IX81 single color TIRFM system:
- Based on an Olympus IX-81-ZDC inverted microscope.
- Equipped with 1.45 N.A. objectives (Apo X 100 and Apo X 60).
- An argon/HeNe laser emitting at 488 nm, 564 nm and 633 nm (X-Cite Series 120, EXFO Photonic Solutions Inc.).
- C9100-02 camera (1000 X 1000 EM; HAMAMATSU Photonics K.K.)
- Controlled by SlideBook software (Olympus Workstation).
Olympus IX83 cellTIRFM dual color system:
- Built around an Olympus IX83 fully motorized inverted microscope with autofocus control and brightfield and DIC illumination
- Equipped with 1.49 N.A. objectives (Olympus 60X and 100X TIRF objectives
- Solid-state lasers (405, 488, 561, 640 nm)
- Widefield epifluorescence illumination (X-cite LED system)
- Hammamatsu ORCA-Flash 4.0 CMOS camera with 4.0 megapixel resolution
- Simultaneous TIRF/FRAP capabilities
- Equipped with a Roper Scientific Photometric Cascade II EMCCD camera, interfaced with an IBM PC running Metamorph software.
- Excitation light is provided by a Xenon arc lamp, and excitation and emission wavelengths are controlled by a Lambda DG-4 high-speed wavelength switcher.
- For electrophysiological recording, this set-up has been equipped with an Axon Instruments Axopatch 200B and Sutter MP-285, and EXFO America Inc. PCS-5200 micromanipulators, together with a DELL Dimension 2400 PC running pClamp 9 software with an Axon Instruments Digidata 1322A interface.