Equipment for Specimen Processing

The IRF is a fully equipped histology facility for individual or service processing and sectioning of tissues for light microscopy is available in Building 1 Room B60 of the IRF. Available equipment includes:

• Citadel 1000 Tissue Processor capable of automated computer controlled processing of up to 50 standard tissue cassettes simultaneously
• PELCO Biowave microwave processing center with vacuum infiltration and Coldspot attachments for even distribution of microwave heating
• Triangle Biomedical Sciences Embedding Station with side-by-side platforms for embedding and cooling paraffin blocks
• Two Reichert-Jung 2030 rotary microtomes
• Zeiss Microm 505HN Cryostat
• Vibratome Tissue Slicers

Applications

Equipment and protocols exist within the IRF for virtually all histological applications from routine hematoxylin and eosin staining through more detailed techniques such as immunohistochemistry.

Imaging Systems for Light Microscopy- Several microscopes are available for routine brightfield, darkfield and fluorescence imaging.

Nikon E600 Widefield Fluorescence and Darkfield Microscopy System

• The Nikon E600 configuration consists of:
  • Excitation and emission filters for UV, green, red and far red dyes
  • Fiber optic darkfield illuminator for high-resolution darkfield imaging
  • Wide range of Plan and Plan-Fluor objectives ranging from 4X through 100X oil
  • Phase and DIC objectives and condensers
  • Micropublisher digital camera with Qimaging software
• The E600 system is located in the Building 1 Basement lab of the IRF

Nikon Optiphot Fluorescence System

• The Nikon Optiphot Fluorescence system configuration consists of:
  • Excitation and emission filters for red/green wide field fluorescence
    4,10,40 and 60X oil objectives
  • Zeiss Axiocam MRc digital camera and Axiovision software
• The Optiphot system is located in Building 1 Room B60.

Zeiss SteREO Lumar V.12 Stereomicroscope

• The Zeiss Lumar V.12 system consists of:
  • Filter sets for fluorescent imaging of EGFP, Rhodamine, CFP, YFP, Cy3 and DAPI ranges of dyes
  • LCD cold light source for transmitted light imaging
  • Fiber optic illumination source
  • Zeiss Axiocam MRm digital camera with Axiovision software
•  The Lumar V.12 system is located in Building 1 Room B60.

Nikon SMZ 1500 Stereomicroscope 

• The Nikon SMZ 1500 Stereomicroscope system consists of:
  • Filter sets for fluorescent imaging of EGFP and red ranges of dye
  • Transmitted light imaging
• The Nikon SMZ 1500 system is located in the Building 1 Basement lab.