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Advanced Instrumentation

The Advanced Instrumentation Facility provides access to modern imaging technologies for researchers. Applications include multi-parametric immune-fluorescence in situ, live-cell imaging, laser microdissection but also single-cell manipulation and picking from live-cell cultures, single-cell secretomics and proteomics, and real-time cell metabolic analyses. Our equipment includes the following imaging technologies:

Miltenyi Biotec MACSima imaging platform

Miltenyi Biotec MACSima imaging platform

  • Fully automated high-content imaging based on fluorescence microscopy
  • Analysis of hundreds of markers on a single sample
    • Samples are stained with fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies
    • Epifluorescence images are acquired from the target area
    • The fluorescence signal is erased, and the process restarts automatically
  • Processing all types of fixed samples (tissue, single cells)
  • Automated processing and imaging
  • Software for analysis of high-dimensional data

 

For more information about this equipment and its setup please contact:

Martina Esser
Research Technician

Tel: +49 941 944–38117
Email: martina.esser@ukr.de

Leica STELLARIS 8

Leica STELLARIS 8

  • Multi-color confocal microscopy and live-cell imaging
  • Controlled humidity, temperature, CO2 and O2
  • High-resolution 3D reconstructions
  • Highest frame rates to capture rapid dynamic events
  • White Light Laser: excitation range 440-790nm up to NIR
  • Up to 8 single excitation wavelengths simultaneously
  • Detection range: 410-850nm
  • Long-term live-cell imaging across FR spectrum with reduced phototoxicity on cultured cells
  • Dynamic Signal Enhancement and Lightening for superb image quality at full speed and in super-resolution, even for low-expressing molecules
  • TauSense lifetime tool, measuring mean average arrival time of photons
  • TauContrast for functional information (metabolic status, pH, ion concentration)
  • TauGating for improved image quality separating auto-fluorescence or reflection light
  • TauSeparation to distinguish spectrally overlapping fluorophores

 

For more information about this equipment and its setup please contact:

Dr. Maria Xydia
Postdoctoral Scientist

Tel: +49 941 944–18104
Email: maria.xydia@ukr.de

Leica LMD7

Leica LMD7 Laser Microdissection

  • Upright fluorescence microscope using laser beams to cut tissues and live-cell cultures
  • Movement of the laser, not the sample, for high laser precision during cutting
  • Sample collection using gravity—no sample contamination
  • Isolation of entire areas of tissue
  • Highly precise isolation of single-cells and subcellular structures such as chromosomes
  • Laser adjustment according to the sample (brain, bone)
  • Up to 8 fluorochromes in parallel
  • Incubator with controlled humidity, temperature and CO2
  • Compatible with downstream sequencing applications and subculturing of isolated cells

 

For more information about this equipment and its setup please contact:

Dr. Maria Xydia
Postdoctoral Scientist

Tel: +49 941 944–18104
Email: maria.xydia@ukr.de

 

MMI CellManipulator

MMI CellManipulator & CellEctor

CellManipulator

  • Optical tweezers system, infrared laser, 8W power
  • Use of mechanical forces from a strongly focused laser beam
  • Contact-free manipulation of microscopic particles, single living cells, or subcellular organisms
  • Hold, move, rotate, join, separate or stretch up to 2×10 objects (beads, particles, cells) of 0.2 to 200 microns
  • Measurement of binding forces, cell-to-cell interactions, and intracellular activities

 

CellEctor

  • Single-cell picking of living cells from liquid cell cultures using Capillary Cell Sorting
  • Incubator with controlled humidity, temperature and CO2
  • Up to 4 fluorochromes in parallel
  • Compatible with downstream sequencing applications and subculturing of isolated cells

 

For more information about this equipment and its setup please contact:

Dr. Maria Xydia
Postdoctoral Scientist

Tel: +49 941 944–18104
Email: maria.xydia@ukr.de

TissueFAXS i PLUS. Inverted brightfield and fluorescence system (TissueGnostics, Vienna, Austria)

TissueFAXS i PLUS & StrataQuest: Context-based image analysis

  • Inverted multi-channel fluorescence & brightfield microscope (Zeiss Axio Observer Z1)
  • Scanning platform for 12 slides or 2 micro well plates
  • Automatic tissue detection
  • Objectives: EC Neo-Fluar 2.5x, Fluar 5x/0.25 M27, EC Plan-Neofluar 10x/0.3 M27, LD Plan-Neofluar 20x/0.4 Corr M27, LD Plan Neofluar 40x/0.6 Corr M27,Plan-Apochromat 63x/1.40 Oil M27
  • Illumination system: LED brightfield and fluorescence. SPECTRA III Light Engine with 8 fixed excitation filters (395/25nm,438/29nm, 475/28nm 511/16nm, 555/28nm, 575/25nm 637/12nm, 748/12)

StrataQuest. Context-based analysis (TissueGnostics, Vienna, Austria)

StrataQuest software

  • Machine-learning tissue classifier for Brightfield and fluorescence image analysis
  • Contextual tissue cytometry
  • Spectral unmixing
  • Image crops feature for scattergrams

 

For more information about this equipment and its setup please contact:

Prof. Dr. Uwe Ritter
Immunology Division – Myeloid Cell-Driven Immunoregulation

Tel: +49 941 944–18125
Email: uwe.ritter@ukr.de

IsoLight System

IsoLight System

  • Automated cellular imaging, proteomic imaging, and ELISA workflow for hands-off generation of single-cell functional data
  • Automated on-site analysis and advanced, functional, single-cell mapping with IsoSpeak Software
  • A highly multiplexed analysis of secreted cytokines at single-cell level
  • Functional phenotyping targeting 500-1500 single cells per sample
  • Characterization of cellular protein to protein interactions and adaptive resistance pathways
  • Analysis of signaling cascades of many phosphoproteins directly from each single cell, across thousands of single cells in parallel
  • Automated highly-multiplexed ELISA workflow for bulk cytokine data

 

For more information about this equipment and its setup please contact:

Dr. Dragana Slavkovic-Lukic
Senior Scientist

Tel: +49 941944-18104
Email: dragana.slavkovic-lukic@ukr.de

Or

Azucena Martin
Research Technician

Tel: +49 941 944-18135

Seahorse XFe96 Analyzer

Seahorse XFe96 Analyzer

  • Live cell, real-time analysis of cellular energy metabolism platform in 96-well format
  • Multiple parameters reported from each assay well, including:
    • oxygen consumption rate (OCR),
    • proton efflux rate (PER) or extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), and
    • ATP production rates
  • Four-port injection system with automated mixing feature for assessing immediate cellular responses to substrates, inhibitors, and other compounds in real-time
  • Advanced Pro Controller software for easy assay protocol creation with user guided interface
  • Data Quality View in Wave Pro software for automated flagging of outliers

 

For more information about this equipment and its setup please contact:

Dr. Jeremy Baldwin
Postdoctoral Scientist

Tel: +49 941 944-18139
Email: jeremy.baldwin@ukr.de