Our Instruments & Fees

Tissue, Live Cell, and Super-Resolution Applications.

Fluorescence Microscopes

We have four fluorescence microscopes, each specialized to specific forms of tissue, cellular, or molecular imaging.

Zeiss AxioObserver

This microscope is specifically designed for single-molecule, high-speed, and FRET microscopy. This microscope has a Hamamatsu W view, which allows for the simultaneous acquisition of two fluorophores at the same time. This enables high-speed single particle tracking of two molecules at the same time, dual-colour Super-Resolution Radial Fluctuation (SRRF) microscopy, and high-speed live cell imaging.

Objectives:
Air: 10×/0.30 NA, 20×/0.80 NA
Oil: 40×/1.40NA, 63×/1.40NA, 100×/1.40NA.

Excitation Lines: Colibri 7 multi-channel excitation source and corresponding filters for DAPI (405 nm), CFP (450 nm), GFP (488 nm), Cy3 (555 nm) and Cy5 (647 nm). A 590 nm channel may become available in the future.

Camera: Hamamatsu ORCA-Fusion CMOS

Image Slitting: Simultaneous excitation and imaging of two channels is available via this microscope’s W-View image splitter. Image splitting is available for CFP/YFP FRET and for Cy3/Cy5 dual-colour imaging.

Whitelight Optics: Brightfield and DIC

Other: Heated/CO2 perfused motorized stage

Control Software: Zeiss Zen

Design Your Experiment: Use the microscope configuration tool on FPBase to ensure your fluorophores are compatable with our system. Configuration is for base wavelengths only (e.g. does not include W-View).

Leica DMI6000B

This microscope is a general-purpose widefield microscope designed to allow for a range of live-cell and fixed-cell imaging approaches. This includes conventional live-cell imaging, Z-stacking, tiling, and point-visiting. Its high sensitivity EM-CCD also allows for some single molecule approaches, FRET, and SRRF.

Objectives: 100×/1.40NA, 63×/1.40NA, and 40×/1.30NA

Excitation Lines: Chroma Sedat Quad filter set (DAPI, FITC, Cy3, and Cy5), plus additional filters and cubes for CFP/YFP FRET and quantum dot imaging.

Cameras: Photometrics Evolve 512-Delta EM-CCD and Hamamatsu ORCA-Flash4 CMOS.

Whitelight Optics: Brightfield and DIC

Other: Heated/CO2 perfused motorized stage

Control Software: INSCOPER

Leica Ground State Depletion

This super-resolution microscope provides molecular-level resolution (~20 nm), providing an unprecedented view of the inner workings of cells. This imaging can be performed at any position in the cell via widefield illumination, or the basolateral membrane can be selectively imaged using TIRF illumination. Tissues can also be imaged using this system, and we have spin-coating facilities for preparing these types of samples.

This microscope requires specialized sample preparation and does not work with all fluorophores.

Objectives: 160×/1.45NA

Excitation Lines: Lasers for GFP, Cy3, and Cy5 excitation, plus a UV-laser for back pumping.

Camera: Andor iXion 3

Whitelight Optics: Brightfield and DIC

Control Software: Leica LAS-AF

Leica DMI Tissue Imaging Microscope

The tissue imaging microscope is built on a Leica DMI body and is dedicated for tiling-based imaging of immunofluorescence tissue samples, and for colour imaging of immunohistochemistry-labeled samples.

Objectives: 5×, 10×, 20×/0.70 NA, and 40×/0.75 NA air objectives

Excitation Lines: Filter sets for DAPI, FITC, Cy3 and Cy5

Cameras: 16-bit CMOS camera for fluorescent imaging, and a 32-bit R/G/B CMOS for colour imaging.

Other: Motorised stage with advanced tiling and zoom capabilities.

Control Software: Leica LAS-X

Other Equipment

Additional equipment to assist with sample preparation.

Cryostat

A Leica CM18602 cryostat is available for cutting frozen sections as part of the preparation process for immunostaining or immunohistochemistry.

Bacteriological Microscope

This Olympus BH2 contains a full Abbe condenser with phase and dark field illumination modes. An available ocular camera can be used to capture 5 MP images of your samples.

Objectives: 10×/0.25 NA, 40×/0.65 NA, 40×/0.55 NA phase contrast, and 100×/1.30NA (oil immersion)

Camera: Amscope MD500 5.0MP USB 2.0 Color CMOS Digital Eyepiece Camera.

Rates

InstrumentFee (Western & Affiliates)Fee (Other Academic)Fee (Commercial)
Leica Widefield Microscope$15/hr$25/hrContact
Zeiss Molecular Imaging Microscope$25/hr$35/hrContact
Ground State Depletion Microscope$35/hr$45/hrContact
Tissue Imaging Microscope$15/hr$25/hrContact
Bacteriological MicroscopeFree to trained usersFree to trained usersContact
Cryostat$15/hr$25/hrContact
TrainingFREE*ContactContact
3D Printing Services$10/hr, or per item rate$10/hr, or per item rate$10/hr, or per item rate
Fee structure updated October 2024. *Thanks to financial support from the Schulich research office, there are no training fees for Western University users until April 2026!

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Whether you’re curious about our facility, experimental design, training, or other features, we’re here to answer any questions.

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