PMB Microscopy Core
Director: Dennis Brown, Ph. D.
Location: MGH-East Labs at the Charlestown Navy Yard 8th Floor West 149 13th St. Charlestown, MA 02129
| Core Summary: |
The Microscopy Core of the Program in Membrane Biology (PMB) at MGH is equipped and staffed to provide a wide range of services to investigators from MGH and the Boston scientific community in the area of light and electron microscopy. The Core is housed on the 8th floor of the Simches Research Center at MGH, and is directed by Dr. Dennis Brown, Ph.D. The Core will provide services ranging from complete performance of the technical procedures required, to full training of personnel. Among the techniques available are laser scanning confocal microscopy, spinning disk confocal microscopy, tissue fixation, sectioning, immunostaining and conventional immunofluorescence microscopy, image analysis, all aspects of electron microscopy including immunogold staining, and laser cutting microdissection. The Core facility provides a unique and important resource for members of the scientific community as they approach a variety of research problems that call for these advanced microscopy techniques.
| Categories and Institutions: |
|
|
| Personnel/Contact Information: |
Director: Dennis Brown, Ph. D.
Phone: 617-726-5665
Fax: 617-643-3182
Email
Member: Mary McKee
Role: Senior Lab Technologist (EM, Sectioning)
Phone: 617-726-3696
Fax: 617-643-3182
Email
Member: Robert Tyszkowski
Role: Senior Lab Technologist (Confocal Microscopy)
Phone: 617-724-9694
Fax: 617-643-3182
Email
| Facilities and Equipment: |
Location of Core: MGH-East Labs at the Charlestown Navy Yard 8th Floor West 149 13th St. Charlestown, MA 02129
Major Equipment:
- 2 Power Mac G5 based workstations with Improvision Volocity visualization, classification (morphometric analysis) and restoration (digital deconvolution) software, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 256 mb Radeon video cards
- BioRad/Zeiss Radiance 2000 confocal microscope
- Cressington freeze-fracture device (at CNY8 facility)
- JEOL 1011 electron microscope with fully digital image capture and processing
- Leica APS freeze-substitution system
- Leica FCS ultracryomicrotome for ultrathin frozen sectioning
- Leica microtome for paraffin sectioning
- Microm cryostats (2)
- MMI CellCut laser microdissection system
- Nikon 80i upright epifluorescence microscope with Hamamatsu Orca CCD camera and complete image analysis software (IP Lab)
- Nikon 80i upright epifluorescence microscope with Hamamatsu Orca CCD camera and complete image analysis software (IP Lab)
- Nikon E800 Eclipse upright epifluorescence microscope with Hamamatsu Orca CCD camera and complete image analysis software (IP Lab)
- Nikon TE300 inverted microscope with wide-field optics and Hamamatsu Orca CCD camera for fluorescence and ratio imaging, with Improvision OpenLab software
- Nikon Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscope system
- Olympus BH2 upright microscope with Spot Insight color CCD camera and Macintosh G4 computer for light microscopy
- Olympus doubleheaded light microscope for section examination
- Perkin Elmer LCI Spinning Disk Confocal Microscope
- Reichert ultramicrotomes for routine EM sections (2)
- Several Macintosh G4-based computer workstations equipped with IP Lab Spectrum software for image analysis
| Services: |
- Consultation Services
Dr. Dennis Brown and the Core technologists will be available for consultation in the use of the different microscopy techniques, and to provide technical advice, such as the different fixation techniques that enable antibodies to detect their antigens.
- Development for Core Enhancement
Dr. Dennis Brown and the advisory committee will continually explore new techniques to be offered as part of the core service.
- Technical Services
The core will perform conventional immunofluorescence microscopy, confocal microscopy, live-cell imaging, conventional electron microscopy and EM immunogold labeling, tissue sectioning, tissue fixation, and computer based image analysis and quantification. In some cases, investigators will provide their own stained tissues/cell for imaging, while in others the Core will perform all services from fixation and sectioning, to staining and imaging.
- Training Services
The core technicians will also provide training to high frequency users who wish to invest the substantial time necessary for learning to use the equipment proficiently.
| Getting Started: |
185 Cambridge St, MGH Simches Research Building, 8th Floor, Boston MA
| Departmental Web Link: |
http://www.partners.org/researchcores/microscopy/microscopy_brown_MGH.asp