Cell and Tissue Imaging Facility

Abstract: Cell and Tissue Imaging Facility (CTIF) The goal of the Cell and Tissue Imaging Facility (CTIF) is to provide UPMC Hillman Cancer Center (HCC) members with a “cutting-edge” resource equipped to address all research-related microscopy needs and expert advice on experimental design and data analysis. The imaging specialties offered by CTIF include: light and fluorescence microscopy (macro-dissecting light and fluorescence, epi-fluorescence, confocal scanning, and multi-photon imaging); live cell microscopy (transmitted light and fluorescence) and fluorescence specialties including fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), spectral analysis, ratiometric imaging, super-resolution microscopy (stimulated emission depletion microscopy [STED] structured illumination microscopy [SIM] and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy [STORM]) technologies), light sheet approaches (both macro and lattice), ribbon scanning ultrafast confocal microscopy; ultrastructural electron microscopy (transmission electron microscopy [TEM], scanning electron microscopy [SEM], immuno-electron SEM and TEM. In addition, the faculty and staff of CTIF provide expertise for assisting with experimental design, instrument use, software use, and complex imaging and analysis methods. Furthermore we are expert in the development and application of computer aided morphometric analysis methods and actively develop algorithms for quantitation of events in living and fixed material.