Advanced Microscopy Core

The Nebraska INBRE Imaging Core Facility (NIICF) serves numerous users on the UNMC and CUMC campuses, as well as additional users from UNL and regional institutions.

The Advanced Microscopy Core Facility (AMCF) at UNMC houses state-of-the-art imaging technologies ranging from super-resolution (~ 0.120 um to 0.020 um) to microscopic (~ 0.300 um) to mesoscopic (~ 1 um) biomedical imaging. The Zeiss ELYRA PS.1 is an inverted microscope for super-resolution (SR) structured illumination microscopy (SIM) and single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) including, PhotoActivated Localization Microscopy (PALM) using photo-switchable/convertible fluorescent proteins, Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) and STochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM). The Zeiss 800 CLSM with Airyscan is an inverted microscope dramatically increasing conventional confocal image resolution to ~180 nm using Airyscan technology. The Zeiss 710 LSM is an inverted microscope supporting most basic imaging applications, multi-channel and spectral, co-localization, live cell, 3D, and time series imaging. The Zeiss Celldiscoverer 7 is a widefield imaging system for automated, time-lapse imaging of live samples. The Zeiss Axioscan 7 is a high-performance whole slide scanning system for fluorescence, brightfield, and polarization imaging. The Miltenyi Biotec Ultramicroscope II Light Sheet fluorescence microscope (LSFM) extends fluorescent imaging into true 3D, large-scale volumetric imaging of intact tissues, organs, and small organisms. The AMCF also houses several high-end data analysis workstations with premier image analysis software including HALO (Indica Labs) and IMARIS (Oxford Instruments) facilitating data rendering, analyses, and presentation options.

The Integrated Biomedical Imaging Facility at Creighton University is a core facility specializing in advanced tools for cell and tissue imaging. IBIF’s technology includes a Leica TCS SP8 multiphoton laser scanning confocal microscope that is well-suited for FLIM, FRET, FCS, spectral imaging, electrophysiology applications, or live animal imaging. For high speed confocal imaging, the facility has a Nikon Ti Inverted microscope with a Yokagawa spinning disk. This microscope also has a stage incubator for timelapse observations of live cells that can be extended over multiple days. Automated, high content imaging of live cells on slides or well plates can be performed on IBIF’s widefield Molecular Devices ImageXpress Micro 4.  IBIF also has an inverted Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence microscope with 4 laser lines.  Lastly, IBIF has an inverted Nikon Ti-E widefield microscope for fluorescence and brightfield imaging.

In addition to microscopes, IBIF provides users with access and support to advanced imaging analysis software that can allow users to glean critical information from experimental results, including software from Leica and Nikon, Volocity, ImageJ, MATLAB, Python, and RStudio.