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Professionals at your service

Consulting and development of molecular studies

We offer a personalized project development and consultation service
Please contact us for more information.

Claire Bénard, PhD
Director

Grégoire Bonnamour, PhD
Research professional

Fixed or real-time imaging

Confocal imaging with photo or video capture of cells, tissues and organisms (C. elegans, zebrafish, Drosophila, mouse embryo) fixed or alive, fluorescent or not, on glass or plastic supports.
Examples: scratch test, intracellular colocalization, FRAP, immunofluorescence, photomanipulation followed by cell migration in real time.

Confocal inverted microscope Nikon A1+ high sensitivity (cathode GaAsP)

This microscope is particularly suitable for live cell imaging by temporal monitoring:

  • Micro-incubator with control of temperature, CO2 and humidity (for slides and culture plates)
  • XY motorized platinum and piezoelectric system for fast movement in Z-stack
  • “Perfect focus” system against the focal drift

It is composed of a multispectral detector on 32 channels with resolutions from 2.6 to 10mm. This system makes it possible to separate two fluorochromes whose emission spectra are very close, as well as to subtract the autofluorescence from a specific staining.

  • High resolution: up to 4096 x 4096 pixels
  • Speed of acquisition: an image of 512 x 512 pixels in 0.6 seconds
  • 3D stack acquisition (limit of 10-15 μm of thickness per sample)
  • Filter cubes: GFP, RFP.

Confocal inverted microscope Nikon A1

Hybrid High Speed Laser Scanner:

  • ~ 30 to 230 images / s (512 x 512 to 64 pixels)
  • Treatment available: photoactivation, photobleaching and simultaneous image acquisition
  • 7 levels of zoom (from 1x to 8-10x) in high speed mode

High speed multi-point scanning scanner

  • Decreases the photo toxicity
  • Decreases the photo bleaching
  • Optimized optical path, minimizing the crosstalk
  • Laser: 405, 488, 561, 640 nm.

EMCCD camera (100 frames/sec in pinhole mode and up to 1000 frames/sec in slot mode).
Laser: 405, 488, 561, 640nm from 40 to 100mW each
Cubes filters: GFP, CFP, YFP, mCherry
Incubation system for 6 and 24 multi-wells, slides, and petri dishes of 3 and 6cm.

Price

CERMO-FC members and UQAM researchers are invited to contact us to find out about privileged pricing thanks to the support of CERMO-FC.

User rate of $35 /hr for stand-alone use or $75 /hr with technical assistance.

User rate of $100 /hr including technical assistance.
An administrative charge of 15% may be applicable.

Analysis of membrane protein expression in cell suspension

Quantification of the expression level and the number of cells expressing a fluorescent or immunofluorescence-labelled protein.
Example: transfection test, immunological analysis.

CytoFLEX LX Cytometer

Has 3 lasers (VBR) and 7 detection channels (colors) in addition to possible discrimination by cellular characteristics (FCS/SSC).

BD Accuri Cytometer

Has 2 lasers (BR) and 4 detection channels (colors) in addition to possible discrimination by cellular characteristics (FCS/SSC).

Price

CERMO-FC members and UQAM researchers are invited to contact us to find out about privileged rates thanks to the support of CERMO-FC.

User rate of $35 /hr for autonomous use. Anticipate a theoretical and practical training before any first autonomous use.

User rate of $50 /hr for autonomous use. Anticipate a theoretical and practical training before any first autonomous use.
An administrative charge of 15% may be applicable.

Isolation of cell subpopulations

Recovery of live or fixed cell populations according to size, granularity, intrinsic fluorescence, fluorescent markers or following immunostaining.
Example: recovery of CRISPR cells, algae, transfected cells.

Cell sorting BD FACSJazz

  • Isolation based on 1 to 3 selection criteria (biomolecular marker, and/or cell characteristic)
  • Reception of cells in culture tubes or plates
  • Monitoring of drop formation in real time by camera
Price

CERMO-FC members and UQAM researchers are invited to contact us to find out about privileged rates thanks to the support of CERMO-FC.

User rate of $90 /h including technical assistance.

Tarif d’utilisation de 100$/h incluant l’assistance technique.
Des frais administratifs de 15% peuvent être applicables.

Paraffin or frozen histological section

Paraffin or frozen tissue histological sections equipment are available free of charge for academic staff.

Automatic Microtome Microm HM 36

  • Microtome for paraffin cutting
  • Thickness of cuts: 0.25 at 60 μm
  • Maximum sample size: 64 x 55 x 50 mm
  • Manual and automatic sectioning

Vibratome Leica VT 1000S

  • Microtome with vibrating blade
  • 5 cutting thicknesses: 0.2 – 1 mm
  • Cutting speed: 0.025 – 2.5mm / s
  • Maximum tissue size: 70 x 40 x 15 mm
  • Integrated magnifying glass

Cryostat Leica CM 1950

  • Cooling chamber from 0 to -35 ° C
  • Quick cooling plate down to -42 ° C
  • Cutting thicknesses: 1 – 100 μm
  • Maximum tissue size: 50 x 80 x 25mm
  • UVC disinfection without ozone
  • Leica AgProtectTM antimicrobial surface coating prevents the spread of infectious agents out of the instrument

Recommendations

We have benefited from the expert advice and services of Denis Flipo, research professional of the CERMO cell analysis platform, for more than 10 years to advance our drug development projects. These include achievements in confocal microscopy, real-time imaging and multiplex flow cytometry which have enabled us to better understand and validate the mechanism of action of our therapeutic molecules. In addition, our researchers and post-doctoral fellows have acquired new skills thanks to a passionate teaching provided by Denis.

Users guide

The platform’s research professionals will be pleased to train you in the use of confocal microscopes. If you want to learn more about the benefits of these advanced imaging tools, here is an additional resource bank:

General theories
https://andor.oxinst.com/complete-microscopy-training-course
https://www.ibiology.org/online-biology-courses/microscopy-series/
https://www.microscopyu.com/
http://zeiss-campus.magnet.fsu.edu/

Operation of a confocal Nikon A1 microscope
https://boc.wisc.edu/microscope-tutorials-helpful-links/

FAQ - Frequently Ask Questions

The platform is located at SB-3715, all you have to do is knock on the door.
If you have an UQAM card and regularly use the platform, send a picture of your UQAM card at cermo-fc@uqam.ca to obtain an independant access to the platform. This access is granted only when you have followed all the training relevant to your experiments.

We provide training on some devices for academic users. Contact us to find out more.

You can also find sources of information on confocal microscope technology in the User Guide section of this page.

We have a server dedicated to the platform, that allows us to store data from the different devices. If you are an UQAM member, you can access this server directly at UQAM via an Ethernet connection. If you are external to UQAM, you can retrieve your data on the platform’s image processing computer.

If you are an UQAM member, you can use the platform’s computer that is powerful enough for different treatments and analyses (deconvolution, videos, etc). We can assist you in carrying out your cellular imaging projects.

The maximum duration for live imaging depends on the availability of the equipment. Please contact us for more information.

At the moment we do not plan to make histological sections. However, we can teach you how to do them.

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