Overview of Services

The Physiology Microscopy Core offers a broad range of imaging options open to faculty, staff, and students in the Physiology Department. The microscopes are free to use and are available for reservation via Microsoft Outlook. Contact Dr. Megan Harwig (mcharwig@mcw.edu) for more information on the microscopes, consultations on microscope project setup/quantification, and training on any of these microscopes. Note that Dr. Harwig also provides training for microscopes within CBNA, the CVC microscopy core and some shared BME microscopes. 

Services:

Training

• Initial microscope training tutorial
• Guided use of microscope following the initial training period
• Project design consultation
• Image analysis consultation
• Image analysis training (Nikon, ImageJ, Cell Profiler)

Maintenance

• Objective/stage/cube cleaning

Physiology Equipment:

Microscopes are located in Physiology and are available to Physiology faculty, staff and students. All training must be reserved with Dr. Megan Harwig.

Brightfield Only Upright Microscopes:

• Nikon NiE
• 2-100x objectives available
• Fully motorized XY & Z
• Nikon DsFi3 5.9 megapixel color camera
• NIS-Elements Basic Research v 5.41.01
• capable of multi-position, z & large image stitching
• Nikon E-400
• 1 - 100x objectives available
• manual stage
• SPOT insight color camera
• SPOT software
• Stereoscope
• SPOT insight color camera
• SPOT software
• optional Boom to image very large specimen
• Macro imaging station
• 55mm Micro-NIKKOR lens
• SPOT insight color camera
• SPOT software
• Nikon Super Coolscan 9000
• whole slide scanner
• images acquired at 4,000 dpi
• comparable to 4x objective resolution)

Widefield Fluorescence Upright Microscopes:

• Nikon E-600
• 4-40x phase objectives
• 16-bit Hamamatsu ORCA-Flash monochrome camera
• Xenon light source
• Sutter Excitation Wheel (DAPI/FITC/TexasRed)
• Separate emission filters (D460 / 50M, D535 / 40M, D605 / 55M); MetaMorph software)
• Nikon E-80i
• 4-40x phase objectives
• 12-bit QiClick CCD monochrome camera
• X-Cite Mercury light source
• MetaVue software
• cubes include DAPI/FITC/TRITC/TexasRed/Cy5
• Nikon NiE
• 2-100x DIC objectives
• DS-Fi2 color camera OR DS-Qi1Mc monochrome camera
• SOLA LED light engine
• cubes include DAPI/FITC/TRITC/TexasRed/Cy5
• Motorized XY & Z
• NIS-Elements Advanced Research software v5.21.03
• capable of multi-dimensional image acquisition including multiple XY positions, z-series, multiple channels, time and large image stitching
• Optional packages:
• Deconvolution
• JOBS
• Denoise.ai

Widefield Fluorescence Inverted Microscope:

• Nikon TS-100
• 4-40x phase objectives
• 12-bit QiClick CCD monochrome camera
• Intensilight Mercury light source
• cubes include DAPI/FITC/TRITC/TexasRed)
• MetaVue software

• Nikon Ti Eclipse
• 4-40x phase objectives
• Hamamatsu Camera
• Nikon D-LED light source
• cubes include DAPI/GFP/TexasRed/Cy5)
• NIS-Elements Basic Research

• Nikon Ti2 - Ion Optics
• Phase Objectives (4 - 40x) and an additional brightfield only 100x objective. 
• Aura II Light Engine (5 channel LED: 348/380/475/555/635)
• Ion Optics setup off of left port:
• Ion Optics calcium & contractility modules
• Myopulse
• MyoCam-S3 Fast CMOS: High speed camera for contractility
• Photomultiplier from ET Enterprises to measure ratiometic FURA signal
• Camera for Nikon imaging off of right port:
• Monochrome Kinetix 22 Back-illuminated SCMOS CAM C-MT
• NIS-Elements Advanced Research Package

Analysis software:

• Shared analysis PC (Alienware PC running Windows 11 with 64 GB memory; 500 GB SSD; 1TB extra hard drive) that has MATLAB (R2021b); GraphPad Prism 9; Nikon Elements Analysis Package (v 5.41.02) with General Analysis 2/3 packages.

Leadership

Location and hours of operation

Useful links

1. https://www.microscope.healthcare.nikon.com/products/software/nis-elements/viewer
2. https://imagej.net/software/fiji/
3. https://cellprofiler.org/

Contacts

Available Equipment and Resources