Advanced imaging is evolving rapidly with journals such as Nature Methods publishing extensions and enhancements to this field in every new issue. Turnkey, commercial equipment is essential to provide researchers with stable and easy access to some of these technologies. However, these systems are only made available 3 to 5 years after methodological discoveries, due to the slow development and release cycles of commercial manufactures. Additionally, these systems are not designed to be easily upgradable, considerably reducing their impact over time with the rapid evolution of the field. 

 

The LMCB has established the Experimental Optics Laboratory to promote rapid access to new developments and prototype the next-generation of imaging technologies. This space has been fully designed and engineered to provide outstanding environmental settings to develop novel microscopy. It is light and vibration isolated, as well as, pressure, energy and temperature controlled. It features a dedicated fibre-optic network connection to a CPU and GPU farm capable of high-performance computing on the generated data. 

 

Currently the laboratory hosts 4 systems:

Gray RDM, et al (2016). VirusMapper: open-source nanoscale mapping of viral architecture through super-resolution microscopy. Sci. Rep. 6, 29132.

Gustafsson N, et al (2016). Fast live-cell conventional fluorophore nanoscopy with ImageJ through super-resolution radial fluctuations. Nat. Commun. 7, 1–9.

Pereira PM, et al (2015). High-content 3D multicolor super-resolution localization microscopy. Methods Cell Biol. 125, 95–117.

Almada P, et al (2015). PALM and STORM: Into large fields and high-throughput microscopy with sCMOS detectors. Methods 88, 109–21.

Henriques R, et al (2010). QuickPALM: 3D real-time photoactivation nanoscopy image processing in ImageJ. Nat. Methods 7, 339–340.