Faculté de médecine Faculté de médecine

Bioimaging Core Facility

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The Bioimaging Core Facility specializes in light microscopy. Its mission is to assist users from experimental design and image acquisition to image processing (including treatment and quantification). In addition to maintaining the platform’s resources and providing user training, we also organize workshops on ImageJ and other imaging software, as well as several academic courses. The facility can also support you in preparing data for oral presentations or publications (file format handling, animations, etc.).

PREREQUISITE: If you are using the Bioimaging core facility for the first time (microscopes and/or computers), please SUBMIT THE ONLINE REGISTRATION FORM  (HERE).

The Bioimaging core facility follows the newly issued directive (in French) from the Rectorate, which aims to optimize the governance, operational procedures, and compliance of the UNIGE's Scientific Platforms.

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Microscopes & PC workstations housed in our facility are available 24/24 hours, 7/7 days for trained users, with consultation, training and support services available from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. (Monday through Friday). Please contact directly François or Olivier.

Microscopes and computers' use is not free of charge. Fees are available HERE. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question.

In term of applications, our microscopes allow to study the :

(i) Localization between different proteins or between diverse biological structures (co-localization, structure/ morphology, large image, 3D rendering, correlative microscopy, super-resolution, ...);

(ii) Dynamics of  live cells and the movement of intracellular structures (cell tracking, multi-dimensional time-lapse acquisitions, FRAP experiments,  Ca2+ imaging,  photoactivation, ...);

(iii) Interactions between cells or different proteins (FRET, ...).

 

 

Please contact directly Nicolas or Sergei. They will be pleased to help you in your projects. Consultations and support services are available:

  • Only Friday (from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) (for Sergei).
  • From Monday to Friday (from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) (for Nicolas).

In term of applications, our softwares and skills in image treatment allow to quantify automatically a large diversity of images  (co-localization, counting, fluorescence intensity measurements, ...).

Important: before acquiring a large number of images, we always recommend discussing with us the best way to perform the acquisitions in order to optimize data analysis.

Fees are available HERE.

Your request will be processed as follow :

  •  A first consultation (free of charge) will be scheduled with the Bioimaging staff to determine which method is the most appropriate for your scientific needs. This meeting will also help us estimate the time required for method development.
  •  If the estimated time is less than 2 hours, we will issue the invoice directly.
  • If more than 2 hours are required, a project request must be formally submitted by email to Bioimaging(at)unige.ch. This request must be approved by the Bioimaging board. The submitted project must comply with the platform's rules and will be handled according to the platform priorities. If the project is accepted, the applicant will be notified by email. A quote will then be prepared. Once your PI has approved the estimate, the work will begin. In all cases, if the project requires less time than initially planned, you will only be charged for the actual scripting hours completed. 
  • The time required for a project must not excessively involve the platform's full-time staff. As a core facility shared by many research groups within the Faculty of Medicine, the Bioimaging platform must manage multiple projects simultaneously. All work will be carried out during official working hours.
  • Priority will be given to internal research groups of the Faculty of Medicine.
  • Your project will be processed in order of arrival (ticket system) and according to the number of ongoing projects that the Bioimaging service must manage. Whenever possible, please contact us in advance so we can handle your request under the best conditions.

  • The time allocated to data analysis may be reduced if the platform’s overall workload requires it.

 

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Our bioimaging facility hosts state-of-the-art equipment with:

  • 13 imaging systems (1 STED nanoscope, 1 spinning disk confocal microscope (Nipkow), 3 confocal laser scanning microscopes (CLSM), 2 slide scanners and 3 widefield fluorescence microscopes including 1 TIRF evanescent wave microscope, 1 laser microdissector and 1 plate scanner/ImageXpress system) that provide a wide range of applications such as cell membrane visualization, laser microdissection/isolation, colocalization analysis, F-techniques (FRAP, FRET), multi-dimensional time-lapse recordings, intravital imaging and high-throughput imaging in ROOMS C06.1742.a. and D06.1554.
  • 7 PC workstations for image processing and analysis (Imaris, Amira, Huygens, metaXpress, MetaMorph, ZEN Lite, NIS, LAS X FLIM, Fiji, Matlab, QuPath, etc...). These PC are located just in front the microscope in ROOM C06.1542.a.

 

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The Olympus VS120 is installed in ROOM C06.1533.a.