This is a new core facility established at the request of the Cancer Center membership at the 1998 leadership retreat. The Cancer Center Executive Committee recommended that we enter into a partnership with the Doheny Eye Institute to jointly purchase a 5th generation confocal microscope to be housed in their space under the direction of Dr. Hinton. The Doheny Eye Institute is located next door to the Norris building which gives members easy access to an already functional facility containing an existing older back-up confocal microscope. The Center committed $250,000 of philanthropic funds to the new instrument and expects to utilize the joint facility approximately 50% of the time. The Executive Committee felt that this approach would give the membership immediate access to state-of-the-art imaging. Also located within the 2,000 square foot core facility, in addition to the two confocals, are the following shared instruments whose use is charged back to investigators on a cost recovery basis: one transmission electron microscope (Zeiss EM-10B), one scanning electron microscope with digital capture and computer workstation (Hitachi S-570), three ultra microtomes, three darkrooms for developing, printing and autoradiography, a photomicroscopy and photomicrography imaging suite complete with a Spot II digital camera and computer imaging system adapted to two Olympus Microphot scopes with Nomarski and phase optics, one Olympus inverted microscope with fluorescence and phase optics, one Zeiss fluorescence microscope with phase, darkfield, and differential interference contrast optics, and digital camera copy stand. Other equipment located in the facility includes a vacuum evaporator, sputter coater, critical point dryer, two print processors, three enlargers, two print and film dryers, two dissecting microscopes, a tissue cryostat, tissue chopper, several computer workstations, a Polaroid slide maker, a color laser printer and a slide scanner. The Confocal Core Facility is currently operating at 90% capacity and has proved to be an invaluable resource for over 20 cancer center members in a wide range of programs.
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