Imaging Core | Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
TTUHSC students walking through Lubbock campus courtyard.

Imaging Core

TTUHSC Imaging Core Facility
Mission

The TTUHSC Imaging Center provides state-of-the-art instrumentation for high-resolution light microscopic imaging.  Expertise and advice is available for the design of experiments involving these techniques; and for the development of grants and manuscripts involving high-resolution light microscopic technologies. 

Services and Available Equipment

The imaging facility has a IVIS Lumina XR from the Caliper Life Sciences for real time tracking of cells expressing bioluminescent or fluorescent proteins simultaneously with X-ray digital imaging technology for living mice.  We also have two fully equipped laser scanning confocal microscopes.  One of these confocal microscopes is a newly acquired Nikon Ti-E microscope with A1 confocal and STORM super resolution.  The other is a Zeiss LSM 510/Meta confocal system attached to both inverted and upright microscopes.  The Nikon system is equipped to perform spectral imaging experiments, TIRF and FRAP.  A high temporal and spatial resolution EMCCD camera is attached to this system.  The microscope is also equipped with a stage-top environmental chamber in which precision temperature incubations can be performed.  In addition, we also have upright and inverted fluorescence microscopes attached to a CCD camera for routine observation of stained (fluorescence) or unstained (Differential Interference Contrast, DIC) specimens.  

Click here for photos of equipment.  Click here for description of equipment.

If you are a TTUHSC user, please  click here to see the Image Analysis Core Laboratory Rates for Internal (TTUHSC) users. If you are a Non-TTUHSC user, please  click here to see the Core Imaging Facility Rates for External (Non-TTUHSC) users.

To see other items of shared equipment at the TTUHSC please click here. 

Contact Information

Dr. Grozdanov is the managing director of the TTUHSC Core Laboratories and is associated with the Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry. 

Email - imagecore@ttuhsc.edu 

Image Analysis Core Facility phone - (806)743-4624

Image Analysis Core Facility Policies

TRAINING

Training for all systems is mandatory before they can be used independently. Contact the Image Analysis Core Facility Managing Director to schedule a time. In your email, please provide a brief description of what you would like to image (e.g., fixed tissue, fixed cells, live cells, etc.), and the fluorophores you are planning to use. The amount of training required depends on the system, the user’s background, and the samples. For a new user, the training usually takes between 1.5 to 3 hours.

SCHEDULING

  • Microscope sessions must be scheduled through the SharePoint Microscope reservation webpage. Instruction on how to make the reservation can be found here. You have to email the Image Analysis Core Facility Managing Director to be granted access to the SharePoint Microscope Scheduling system.
  • Be realistic with your scheduling.
  • It is your responsibility to know if someone has booked the microscope after you. You should check the reservation webpage about 30 minutes before the start of your session. If you are using a microscope and the next user is coming less than 2 hours after your session ends, leave everything on—this will prolong the life of the mercury lamps and the health of the lasers.
  • If you add a new reservation for a microscope while another user is on that microscope, or less than 30 minutes before the start of that user’s session, it is your responsibility to tell that user and to ask her or him to leave the microscope on for you.
  • If you receive instrument specific instructions about this during training, those instructions supersede the information in this section.

DATA TRANSFER and DATA STORAGE

  • If you need to use the computer connected to a microscope for data transfer to a portable hard drive, please reserve it as you would normally. This is the only way to ensure its availability. There will not be a charge for a data transfer.
  • You should consider doing the data transfer while you are imaging to maximize the availability of the microscope.
  • Users are encouraged to back up files frequently to reduce data transfer time.
  • The Image Analysis Core Facility assumes NO responsibility for data storage. All hard drives will eventually fail. It is impossible to protect data from viruses with 100% confidence. It is the user’s responsibility to backup data.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Image Analysis Core Facility should be listed in the “Acknowledgments” section of any publication using data generated in the Image Analysis Core Facility as follows: “Images were generated in the Image Analysis Core Facility supported in part by TTUHSC.” Proper acknowledgment will show that the facility is used, and to enable growth and continuation of financial and other support, so that it may continue to provide its essential services in the best way possible.