Integrated Microscopy Facility

Microscopy is an essential technology for cancer investigators, providing imaging to test hypotheses about physiologic processes at the whole-animal, organ, cell, and now at near-molecular level. The Integrated Microscopy Facility (IMF) provides state-of-the-art imaging capabilities to University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) investigators and others. The major objective of the IMF is to provide imaging expertise and instrumentation to advance investigator-driven basic and translational cancer research and foster the research output of the investigators. The IMF offers all major light and confocal laser microscopy instrumentation (including wide-field apparatuses), in addition to super-resolution technologies (e.g., stimulated emission depletion or STED, localization, structured light). In the reporting period, IMF supported 79 unique UCCCC members (47% MMC, 9% CPC, 22% IC, 18% CET, 5% ZY), with 179 peer-reviewed cancer-related federal grants and 103 peer-reviewed publications (48% in journals with impact factor ≥10). A key goal for the IMF is to keep operating costs within reach of all UCCCC laboratories, accordingly, IMF has made over $1.8M in equipment upgrades since 2018, all with institutional funds. Future efforts are aimed at maintaining the high-quality services offered. To meet evolving demands, IMF will continually evaluate rapidly evolving technologies to make state of the art tools available for the specialized imaging needs of UCCCC investigators. Computational approaches (e.g., “deep learning” techniques) likewise are now enhancing data gathering and analyses. This Core will strive to align instrumentation capabilities with specialized imaging needs of the UCCCC Investigators.