Rationale and Mission. The development of advanced microscopy techniques is a driving force behindadvances in biological research and medical imaging. In the past several decades, the refinement and commercializationof confocal/multiphoton microscopes along with advances in fluorophore development (such asGFP derivatives, Chameleons and many others) have led to a renaissance in biological microscopy (Denk etal., Science 248, 1990; Piston, Trends Cell Biol 9, 1999; Diaspro, 2002, Wiley-Liss; Van Roessel and Brand,Nat Cell Biol 4, 2002; Giepmans et al., Science 312, 2006). The newest imaging methods, however, often requireexpertise and instruments beyond the financial and technical capacity of most individual scientists. Thus,shared imaging facilities have become crucial components of university research cores.The CNR Imaging & Cell Analysis Core was developed in response to the rapid advances occurring in contemporarybiological microscopy and to meet the imaging priorities of Tufts neuroscience investigators. Thecore now provides Tufts neuroscientists with a broad range of microscopic imaging services including widefieldfluorescence microscopy & digital imaging, confocal microscopy, 2-photon microscopy, live-cell imaging,electron microscopy, and laser capture microdissection. In addition to standardmicroscopic investigations, investigators use core facilities to perform dynamicimaging studies such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) orfluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) experiments. Coreequipment and services are described in a later section.
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