Optical Microscopy

Confocal Usage Calendar (SmartSite@UCDavis)

Lab Protocols

Facilities

The Yamada laboratory space of 1260 sq. ft. is equipped for general molecular, biochemical, and cell biological research. The main laboratory space consists of a new wet bench designed for six scientists and basic biology equipment including a 37C incubator, a shaker, a water bath, a pH meter, two precision weighing balances, three centrifuges, a spectrophotometer, a PCR machine, and a MilliQ water purification system. In addition, the facility is equipped with cryo storage and preservation units (4C, -20C, -80C and -130C) for valuable biological resources. The laboratory is equipped with capacity to manipulate, purify and assay DNA, RNA, and proteins.

The main laboratory space is adjacent to a tissue culture room (100 sq. ft.) and a dedicated darkroom (170 sq. ft.). The tissue culture room is fully equipped with two biosafety hoods, a double-stacked 37C CO2 incubator, a tissue culture inverted microscope with fluorescence excitation, a clinical centrifuge, and a water bath.

The dedicated darkroom is designed to house two optical microscopes, and is currently the home of a state-of-art live-cell spinning disk confocal microscope. The confocal microscope is based on a Zeiss AxioObserver with a CoolSnap HQ II CCD camera and completely automated by Slidebook software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations). The confocal unit is custom designed and based on Yokogawa spinning disk unit CSU10 and two solid-state lasers (488nm with 50mW and 561nm with 40mW) with Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter (AOTF) to allow milliseconds switching between two lasers. Furthermore, the microscope is equipped with a x-y motorized stage that includes 0.1 micron linear encorders on each axis to allow multi-site time-lapse imaging. During the time-lapse imaging, the environmental temperature is maintained by a custom designed microscope chamber and a heater with a feedback temperature control. To isolate any noise and vibration, the entire microscope system is on a vibration-free table. This system provides us with the ability to perform dual-color three-dimensional time-lapse imaging with high temporal and spatial resolution.