Boilerplates
The Integrated Light Microscopy Facility (ILMF) functions as a supervised, user-based Core providing state-of-the-art microscopy imaging capabilities to all University investigators. The primary mission of the Facility is to provide a valuable, unique service to the University community by furnishing high-quality microscopy instrumentation, user training, image analysis tools, and expert assistance. The ILMF is directed by Dr. Benjamin Glick and managed by three full-time technical directors. Director Dr. Christine Labno has 20 years of microscopy experience with specialties in selective plane illumination microscopy and multiplex immunostaining (including antibody generation and testing) as well as experience in image processing and analysis. The ILMF is located in a custom-designed space in the Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery (KCBD) room 1250, and houses 15 microscopes, including four with superresolution capability (the Leica Ground State Depletion superresolution/TIRF microscope, 3i Lattice Lightsheet, the Leica SP5 II STED-CW superresolution confocal, and Leica SP8 3D STED-3X white-light laser spectral confocal). Other systems include a Leica Stellaris8 Falcon WLL confocal system, a Leica SP5 2-photon laser scanning confocal, a 3i Marianas Yokogawa-type spinning disk confocal, an Olympus DSU spinning disk confocal system, a stereomicroscope, CaliberID upright scanning confocal microscope, a La Vision ultra II cleared sample lightsheet microscope, and two brightfield and fluorescence light microscopes. The facility can accommodate live cell imaging in multiple formats, including the 3i Lattice Lightsheet system, the Olympus VivaView incubator microscope, three systems with full-wrap incubation chambers and several stage-top incubation systems. Three high-resolution digital slide scanners are operated as a drop-off service. These scanners yield digital slides containing detail equivalent up to 80x magnification for color histology and multi-color fluorescence materials. The facility offers high-end analysis software (Arivis Vision4D, Imaris, Huygens Pro, ImageJ, etc), free, temporary networked data storage, and workstations (two are very high-end computation and graphics capable) for data analysis and presentation (including virtual reality). Details and policies can be found on the Core website.
Acknowledgment:
[Technique/technology] was performed in the Integrated Light Microscopy Core at University of Chicago, which receives financial support from the Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA014599). RRID: SCR_019197
We thank The University of Chicago Integrated Light Microscopy Core, especially [staff name], for their assistance with [technique/technology]. RRID: SCR_019197
Integrated Light Microscopy Core RRID: SCR_019197
All of the following information is also available as a Word doc
Here are sample sentences that anyone using the Facility can add to the Acknowledgements or Materials and Methods sections of publications. Resources are in alphabetical order.
Acknowledging the Facility or the Technical Directors and listing the Core equipment you used in the Materials and Methods section helps us demonstrate how much our Core contributes to the University community and track the impact of each piece of equipment on research infrastructure.
General Facility Acknowledgement: Imaging (and/or image processing and/or data analysis) was performed at the University of Chicago Integrated Light Microscopy Core RRID: SCR_019197.
You may also acknowledge special contributions to imaging or image analysis by Ms. Shirley Bond, Dr. Vytas Bindokas, Dr. Loraine Horwitz, Dr. Christine Labno or Mr. Khalil Rodriguez if you wish.
Arivis software: Image processing was performed using Arivis Vision4D software v. 3.1 (arivis AG, Rostok, Germany).
Axioskop in KCBD 1250C: Images were captured with a Zeiss Axioplan upright microscope with a Zeiss Axiocam color CCD camera (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Thornwood, NY) run by the QCapture suite (QImaging, Surry, BC).
Axiovert 100 in KCBD 1250F (retired in 2017): Images were captured with a Zeiss Axiovert 100TV inverted epifluorescence microscope (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Thornwood, NY) with a Retiga EXi CCD camera (QImaging, Surry, BC) run by SlideBook 5.5 software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
Axiovert 135 in Abbott 129: Images were captured with a Zeiss Axiovert 135 inverted epifluroescence microscope (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Thornwood, NY) with a MicroMax camera (Roper Scientific, Trenton, NJ) run by Micro-Manager software (laboratory of Dr. Ron Vale, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA).
Axiovert 200m in KCBD 1250F: Images were captured with a Zeiss Axiovert 200m inverted epifluorescence microscope (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Thornwood, NY) with (CHOOSE ONE) a Hamamatsu Flash 4.0 camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Skokie, IL) for fluorescence imaging OR a Zeiss Axiocam digital color CCD camera (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Thornwood, NY) for histology imaging run by SlideBook 6.0 software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
Fluoview 1000 in KCBD 1250B (retired in 2020): Images were captured with an Olympus Fluoview 1000 laser scanning confocal microscope with Olympus Image Capture software (Olympus Corporation of the Americas, Center Valley, PA). Huygens Deconvolution software: Images were deconvolved with Huygens Pro software v. 4.3 (Scientific Volume Imaging, Hilversum, The Netherlands).
Imaris software: Image processing was performed using Bitplane Imaris software v. 9.1.2 (Andor Technology PLC, Belfast, N. Ireland).
Lattice Lightsheet in KCBD 1250B: Images were captured with a 3i Lattice Lightsheet microscope with Bessel Beam Illumination (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO) with a Hamamatsu Orca Fusion camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Skokie, IL) run by Slidebook software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
LaVision Ultramicroscope II: Lightsheet Images were captured with a LaVision BioTec UltraMicroscope II (Miltenyi Biotec, Bergish Gladbach, Germany) run by ImSpector Pro v. 7_124 software (LaVision BioTec, Bielefeld, Germany).
Leica GSD in KCBD 1250B: Images were captured with a Leica SR GSD 3D / 4 color TIRFM fluorescence microscope (Leica Microsystems, Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL) with an Andor iXon Ultra EM-CCD camera (Andor Technology PLC, Belfast, N. Ireland).
Leica SP5 2-photon in Abbott 129: Images were captured with a Leica SP5 Tandem Scanner Spectral 2-photon confocal microscope (Leica Microsystems, Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL).
Leica STED-SP5 in KCBD 1250F: Images were captured with a Leica TCS SP5 II STED laser scanning confocal microscope (Leica Microsystems, Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL).
Leica SP8 3D STED in KCBD 1250G: Images were captured with a Leica SP8 3D STED laser scanning confocal microscope (Leica Microsystems, Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL).
Leica Stellaris 8 in KCBD 1250G: Images were captured with a Leica Stellaris 8 laser scanning confocal microscope (Leica Microsystems, Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL).
Leitz in Abbott 129 (retired in 2021): Images were captured with a Leitz Diaplan inverted epifluroescence microscope (Leica Microsystems, Buffalo Grove, IL) with a QImaging MicroPublisher 3.3 CCD camera and QCapture suite software (QImaging, Surrey, BC).
Lightsheet Z.1 in KCBD 1250C (moved to OBA Core in 2022): Images were captured with a Zeiss Lightsheet Z.1 Selective Plane Illumination microscope (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Thornwood, NY) with tandem PCO.edge sCMOS cameras (PCO.Imaging, Kelheim, Germany) and Zeiss Zen imaging software. Marianas in Abbott 129: Images were captured with a 3i Marianas Yokogawa-type spinning disk confocal microscope with an Evolve EM-CCD camera (Photometrics, Tucson, AZ) running SlideBook v6.0 software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
Olympus “fixed sample” DSU Spinning Disk in KCBD 1250F: Images were captured with an Olympus DSU spinning disk confocal microscope (Olympus Corporation of the Americas, Center Valley, PA) with an Evolve EM-CCD camera (Photometrics, Tucson, AZ) run by SlideBook v6.0 software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
Olympus “live cell” DSU Spinning Disk in KCBD 1250F: Images were captured with an Olympus DSU spinning disk confocal microscope (Olympus Corporation of the Americas, Center Valley, PA) with a Hamamatsu model C9100 EM-CCD camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Skokie, IL) run by SlideBook v6.0 software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
Olympus IX81 widefield in KCBD 1250F: Images were captured with an Olympus IX81 inverted epiflurorescence microscope with the Olympus Zero Drift Correction auto re-focusing system (Olympus Corporation of the Americas, Center Valley, PA) with a Hamamatsu Orca Flash 4.0 sCMOS camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Skokie, IL) run by Slidebook 6.0 software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
Stereomicroscope in KCBD 1250C: Images were captured with an Olympus SZX-Zb12 Research Stereomicroscope (Olympus Corporation of the Americas, Center Valley, PA) with a QIMaging Retiga-EXi FAST camera (QImaging, Surrey, BC) run by Slidebook software (Intelligent Imaging Innovations, Denver, CO).
Whole Slide Scanner CRi 40x: Digital image files were created with a 3D Histech Pannoramic SCAN whole slide scanner (Epredia, Kalamazoo, MI) with a Stingray F146C color camera (Allied Vision Technologies, Stadtroda, Germany). Individual images were created with the 3D Histech Pannoramic Viewer software (3DHistech Kft, Budapest, Hungary).
Whole Slide Scanner CRi 20x: Digital image files were created with a 3D Histech Pannoramic MIDI whole slide scanner (Epredia, Kalamazoo, MI) with a Zeiss AxioCam MRm CCD camera (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Thornwood, NY). Individual images were created with the 3D Histech Pannoramic Viewer software ((3DHistech Kft, Budapest, Hungary).
Whole Slide Scanner Olympus VS20: Digital image files were created with an Olympus VS200 Research Slide Scanner (Olympus / Evident, Center Valley, PA) with a Hamamatsu ORca-Fusion camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Skokie, IL). Individual images were created with the OlyVIA Viewer software (Olympus / Evident, Center Valley, PA).
VivaView incubator microscope in KCBD 1250B: Images were captured with an Olympus VivaView incubator-based, epifluorescence microscope (Olympus Corporation of the Americas, Center Valley, PA) run by MetaMorph software (Molecular Devices LLC, Sunnyvale, CA).