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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 from UQAM
Manager

Fixed or real-time imaging

Confocal imaging with photo or video capture of cells, tissues and whole 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.

Leica Stellaris 8 super-resolution inverted confocal microscope New

Multicolor fixed sample. TauSTED Xtend 775; Vimentin AF 594 (cyan), Phalloidin ATTO 647N (magenta) and NUP107 CF680R (glow). Image width: 39 nm. Sample courtesy of Brigitte Bergner, Mariano Gonzales Pisfil, Steffen Dietzel, Core Facility Bioimaging, Biomedical Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. Credit: Leica web site

TauSTED Xtend reveals the distribution of nuclear pores (NPCs) on COS7 cells immunostained for NUP complexes with AF 488. Only 0.5% of STED light reveals much more detail. Credit: Leica website

STimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Technology

  • Imaging beyond the diffraction limit for advanced nanoscopy results
  • Latest-generation White Light Lasers (WLL)
  • 5 STED-compatible Power HyD detectors for multi-color applications

TauSTED Xtend Technology

TauSTED measures fluorescence lifetime data acquired during each STED image and maps the STED response of the fluorophore in real time. Access to this information allows you to improve image quality (signal-to-noise), eliminate background photons using physical principles, and push STED resolution beyond the limits based on intensity alone, regardless of the excitation and STED laser line (589, 660, 775) you use.

  • Combines lifetime-based information with additional spatial readout
  • Significant resolution gain, by dramatically reducing STED excitation and light dose
  • Analysis over long time periods, even at the nanoscale

FALCON STED Technology

The STED 775 and the FALCON STED separation module allow the separation of fluorochromes with overlapping spectra using their fluorescence lifetime.

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 UQ network 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 UQ network 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.

BD FACSMelody Flow Cytometer New

  • Isolation based on selection criteria such as biomolecular markers, and/or cell characteristics)
  • Available lasers: Violet 405nm (filters 448/45, 528/45), Blue 488nm (filters 527/32, 700/54), YG 561nm (filters 582/15, 613/18, 697/58, 783/56)
  • Sorting up to 4 lanes in 1.5mL, 2mL and 5mL tubes
  • Reception of cells in culture tubes or plates
  • Possibility of sterile sorting
Price

CERMO-FC members and UQ network 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.

HistoCore MULTICUT semi-automatic microtome – Leica

  • Microtome for paraffin cutting
  • Thickness of cuts: 0.5 at 100 μm
  • Maximum sample size: 70 mm ±1 mm
  • Manual and semi-automatic sectioning

Vibratome Microm HM 650V

  • Microtome à lame vibrante
  • 5 épaisseurs de coupe : 1 – 10 um
  • Loupe intégrée

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

“The cellular imaging platform is an exceptional resource, equipped with cutting-edge instruments and benefiting from competent and available staff. For my doctoral project, I had the opportunity to use the Nikon A1 confocal inverted microscope and the CytoFLEX LX cytometer to identify pollen grains. These analyses would not have been possible without the invaluable support of Grégoire, the research professional responsible for the platform.

Grégoire is very familiar with the equipment and its various applications. He is very attentive and always available to help in case of problems and to answer our questions. He accompanied and helped me in the development of this method of pollen analysis in cytometry, an approach still rarely used on a global scale, and which had never been implemented with this model of cytometer. Thanks to his availability, his listening and his knowledge of the equipment, my work was considerably facilitated. Do not hesitate to inquire and contact Grégoire about the analyses you wish to carry out, he will be able to direct you towards the equipment that best corresponds to your needs.”

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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