Optical Biology Core

Overview of Services

OBC has multiple instruments applicable to biological applications including a newly installed Zeiss LSM 980 with Airyscan 2/two-Photon Laser, Zeiss LSM 780 with 2 photon and incubation, LSM 900 with Airyscan 2, Zeiss Z1 Mesoscale lightsheet, Elyra 7 with Lattice SIM and SMLM and a Leica SP8 confocal microscope, as well as additional facilities to support Multi-Dimensional Microscopy (MDM). Learn more about advaced microscopy with the latest edition of " Principles of Light Microscopy: From Basic to Advanced. 2024 edition" 

OBC - List of our microscopes and some Cell Specific Dyes and Probes: Compatibility, Excitation, and Imaging Techniques

Multiple workstations including Imaris 3/4D Image Visualization and Analysis Software, Imaris Stitcher, Arivis, ZEN Blue for Airyscan processing and ZEN Black for SIM processing, and Huygens Deconvolution are available for use in the OBC. 

The NLOM Lab at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at UC Irvine develops and uses modern biophotonics technologies such as nonlinear optical microscopy for basic research, pre-clinical and clinical applications. One of our major goals related to clinical applications is to use this technology as a non-invasive imaging tool to visualize and understand the microscopic and molecular processes that underlie skin biology. We collaborate closely with the Dermatology Department at UCI to overcome the challenging task related to the clinical translation of multiphoton microscopy. Our Lab is an imaging shared resource for the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Skin Biology Research Center at UCI. Shared instrumentation: Leica SP8 Falcon + coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS)

This is a commercial imaging platform customized to feature the following modalities: confocal fluorescence and two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) microscopy, second harmonic generation (SHG), CARS and fluorescence lifetime microscopy. 

It is very important to the continued funding of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (CFCCC) that the productive collaboration of CFCCC-supported Shared Resources is acknowledged in publications and presentations, and that resulting publications are processed by the National Institutes of Health Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) to obtain a PubMed Central reference number (PMCID), per NIH Public Access Policy.

For all publications using any of the resources from the OBC, be sure to include the following statement in the acknowledgments:

This study was made possible in part through access to the Optical Biology Core Facility of the Developmental Biology Center, a shared resource supported by the Cancer Center Support Grant (CA-62203) and Center for Complex Biological Systems Support Grant (GM-076516) at the University of California, Irvine.”--

Please visit the CFCCC website to learn more about Acknowledging the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) and Shared Resources.

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Important Notice:

The OBC policy is that damage caused to microscopes or their components due to negligence will be billed to the responsible PI. When you make a reservation for microscope usage, you and your PI are agreeing to potential charges for damages caused by your negligence.

Objectives cost $1000 to $16,000, while the microscopes themselves cost $450,000 - $850,000. Please handle all equipment with care, including proper cleaning and maintenance, avoiding unnecessary force when adjusting lenses, and being mindful of potential spills. If you would like refresher training, please reserve a time slot. Let's work together to maintain a safe and functional laboratory environment for all users. Thank you for your cooperation – and to reiterate: The cost of repair or replacement will be charged to the responsible PI if damage is caused by negligence.

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Direct Link to the UCI Flow Cytometry Core HERE

Leadership

Dr. Adeela Syed|Project Scientist and Manager of Optical Biology Core 

Dr. Rahul Warrior|Associate Professor and Director of Optical Biology Core

Dr. Michelle Digman|Associate Professor and Director Laboratory of Flourescence Dynamics (LFD) and Chair of BME

Dr. Mihaela Balu|Associate Researcher of NLOM

SUPPORT FOR CONFOCAL USERS

Adeela Syed PhD, OBC Manager

Hours: ~9:30am to 4:00pm and by appt.

You can contact Adeela via email (adeelas@uci.edu), or phone (949-824-3856)

SUPPORT FOR NONLINEAR OPTICAL MICROSCOPY LAB 

Mihaela Balu, PhD, Associate Researcher

Hours: ~9:30am to 4:00pm and by appt.

You can contact Mihaela via email (mbalu@uci.edu), or phone (949-824-8797)

Links and Resources

1. Optical Biological Core Facilty
2. Laboratory Fluorescence Dynamics 
3. Nonlinear Optical Microscopy Lab

Contacts

Available Equipment and Resources