CELL & MOLECULAR IMAGING SHARED RESOURCE: SUMMARY The mission of the Cell & Molecular Imaging Shared Resource (CMI) is to provide Hollings Cancer Center (HCC) members with technologies, expertise, and training for state-of-the-art cell-based imaging and analysis. Imaging platforms provided include confocal, multiphoton, and super-resolution microscopy of live and fixed cells and tissues, intravital imaging, automated imaging, and image quantification of histological slides. CMI houses Zeiss LSM 880 NLO multiphoton/confocal/Airyscan super-resolution, Olympus Fluoview FV1200 intravital multiphoton, Zeiss LSM 510 META confocal, Olympus Fluoview FV 10i LIV live cell confocal, and BD BioSciences CARV II spinning disk confocal microscopes, and a new Perkin-Elmer Vectra Polaris Automated Quantitative Pathology Imaging System. Microscopes are equipped with environmental chambers for temperature and CO2/O2 control to allow high-resolution non-destructive 3D imaging of living cells and organisms. Applications include: 1) live cell imaging of parameter-sensitive fluorophores to monitor ions, electrical potentials, radical generation, pyridine nucleotide reduction, membrane permeability, cell viability (apoptosis and necrosis), fluorescent protein labeling, and other fluorescent reporters; 2) high resolution imaging of tissue sections for immunocytochemistry and fluorescent protein distribution; 3) fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and Duolink to characterize and quantify intermolecular interactions; 4) intravital microscopy to monitor microcirculation, leukocyte margination, mitochondrial polarization and permeability, and other factors in living animals; and 5) high throughput, quantitative multiplexed imaging of conventionally and immunostained specimens. Ancillary equipment includes tissue culture hoods, incubators and fluorescence and absorbance plate readers for parallel measurements in cultured cells grown on multi-well plates. Through the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, CMI also provides consultation, training, and services in histopathology (frozen and paraffin sections and immunocytochemistry) and correlative electron microscopy. CMI services include theoretical and hands-on training and assistance to junior investigators. Imaging workstations running Imaris, ImageJ FIJI, Metamorph, and other software provide offline image processing and analysis. In the current cycle, CMI supported research in 54 HCC labs leading to 40+ publications by 23 investigators representing all HCC research programs and submission of 50+ grant proposals, including a P20 Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) on ?Oxidants, Redox Balance, and Stress Signaling? (P20 GM103542), plus pending applications for a COBRE in Diseases of the Liver and Gastrointestinal Tract, and a P30 Digestive Diseases Research Core Center. Under the leadership of John J. Lemasters, MD, PhD, a national leader in mitochondria and energetics biology, the CMI Shared Resource has grown to become a superb scientific resource for the visualization and quantification of cellular processes.
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