The Plant Imaging Center (PIC) is a multi-user research center in the Department of Botany offering expertise, instruction, and instrumentation in modern microscopy to the plant research community at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Current research in the PIC covers a broad range of plant biology topics including calcium signaling, tropism responses, mechanical signaling, embryo development, leaf development, hormone signaling, pollen phenotyping, protein degradation, and membrane dynamics.
The Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging & Behavior is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to affective and cognitive neuroscience research with brain imaging. The laboratory includes:
Waisman Center Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Core
The CMN core provides services and specialized equipment needed to conduct studies on human and animal tissues at the cellular and molecular level. Specific techniques and equipment include:
Synchrotron technology allows researchers to utilize light as a tool. At SRC, light is produced by hurtling electrons at near the speed of light around a circular track--which, at SRC, is appropriately called Aladdin. Those electrons are manipulated in such a way that light, ranging SRC Vaultfrom infrared to x-ray, is produced.
Medical School Electron Microscopy Facility (in Bardeen Labs)
The Medical School Electron Microscope Facility is an internal service facility committed to providing a top-quality and up-to-date electron microscopy services to the University of Wisconsin system. The Facility is open for use to the University research community, as well as the private sector (at an additional cost). We will work with any organization needing electron microscopy applications, consultation, and/or training.
The Biophysics Instrumentation Facility (BIF) serves researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The fourteen state-of-the-art instruments in the BIF have a common purpose: Each enables users to study the conformation, structure, or complexation of biological and other macromolecules. These interrelated properties are the basis for biological and macromolecular function. Each of the instruments provides distinct information, and the ensemble enables thorough characterization of conformation, structure, and complexation.
Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation
LOCI is a biophotonics instrumentation laboratory stemming from the research activities of Kevin Eliceiri, Patti Keely, John White and other LOCI investigators. Our mission is to develop advanced optical and computational techniques for imaging and experimentally manipulating living specimens.
Cancer Center Electron Microscopy Facility (in McArdle labs)
The Electron Microscopy Laboratory is located in the basement of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research. This laboratory has existed and provided services to McArdle investigators and other Medical School staff for 30 years. Dr. Henry C. Pitot has been and continues to be the faculty advisor for this facility.
With an emphasis on cancer research, the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR) at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison is designed to allow researchers to work with scientists from other disciplines, speeding the transfer of science to the people who will benefit from it.
Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL)
The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, with facilities located in Madison and Barron, is a full service laboratory serving veterinarians from Wisconsin and throughout the United States.
WVDL is accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and provides a broad range of diagnostic services to the production, companion, and exotic animal industries. WVDL performs surveillance tests for a variety of animal diseases (e.g., brucellosis) and performs tests to qualify animals, semen, and embryos for interstate and international shipment.
The Materials Science Center (MSC) provides instrumentation and expertise for the characterization of materials and nanostructures. It houses four scanning electron microscopes and three transmission electron microscopes, multiple x-ray diffractometers, two surface analysis instruments, and an atomic force microscope. Recent acquisitions include a dual-beam focused ion beam instrument, a scanning confocal micro-Raman spectrometer, and a small-angle x-ray diffractometer.
The William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital is a highly affiliated acute care facility providing comprehensive tertiary care in medicine, surgery, neurology, and psychiatry. Approximately 1,400 professional, administrative, and support personnel provide the widest range of services to the more than 34,000 veterans treated annually, either as inpatients or outpatients.
National Magnetic Resonance Facility at Madison (NMRFAM)
NIH-funded, shared instrumentation laboratory located in the Biochemistry Department and directed by Professor John Markley. NMRFAM contains nine modern multinuclear NMR spectrometers with field strengths between 400 MHz and 900 MHz equipped for the most demanding multidimensional, multinuclear spectroscopic applications. Cryogenically cooled probes are installed on five of the instruments.
Tiny Things
Muscle - enlarged view as RGB merged image
Candida albicans biofilm after 24 hours of development. Catheter wall and intraluminal biofilm in an end-on orientation is shown. Images by Philip Oshel from D. Andes, et al. Development and Characterization of an In Vivo Central Venous Catheter Candida albicans Biofilm Model. Infection and Immunity, 72(10):6023-6031.
Structure image and computer simulation of interlayered serpentine and chlorite. Ar ion milled thin section, HRTEM micrograph. Jill Banfield, 1999
Fluorescence images of in vivo Candida albicans biofilm with both FUN-1 and ConA stains after 24 hours of development. A view of the catheter wall and intraluminal biofilm in an end-on orientation is shown. (A) Image capture was set for simultaneous visualization of both green and red fluorescence. (B) Image capture was set for visualization of red fluorescence. Cells fluorescing red are metabolically active. Images by David Andes from D. Andes, et al. Development and Characterization of an In Vivo Central Venous Catheter Candida albicans Biofilm Model. Infection and Immunity, 72(10):6023-6031.
Confocal image of an interphase 3t3 cell stained with rhodamine phalloidin (revealing actin cables) and an FITC double layered antibody revealing microtubules. Image courtesy of John White, 2000.
Fibroblast whole mount - enlarged view as RGB merged image
Stylostome of a Trombidium newelli mite larva, internal view. The larva is an ectoparasite of the alfalfa weevil Hypera postica that attaches to the weevil at an arthrodial membrane between abdominal tergites. ca. 200 X. Images by Philip Oshel from Mohamed & Hogg Exp. Appl. Acarology 34:323-333 with permission.
Red/green stereopair of a high resolution, low voltage scanning electron micrograph showing crystallographically-controlled dissolution textures within the carbonate mineral assemblage of Martian meteorite ALH84001. Image courtesy of Bill Barker, 1999.
Arabidopsis seedling
Papillae of a stigma
Two-cell C. elegans embryo imaged by laser scanning confocal microscopy. The AB cell is just starting to assemble its spindle, and the P1 cell is in prophase: microtubules are in green, DNA is blue and the red is syntaxin (to mark the cortex). Image courtesy of Maria Vidal, LOCI
Secondary electron (SE) image of the same isolated mitochondria. Accelerating voltage was 5kV. Note how BSE image highlights the colloidal gold immunolabel. Dhammika Atapattu, School of Veterinary Medicine, Univ. of Wisconsin, unpublished with permission.
Four-eyed mutant of Drosophila melanogaster. SEM micrograph of Au-coated, air dried sample. Bill Stark, 1999
An Arabidopsis embryo expressing PIN1-GFP co-stained with FM-464 to visualize the cell wall structure. Image from C. Spitzer of the Otegui Lab.
Backscattered electron (BSE) image of isolated mitochondria from cultured bovine lymphocytes. These mitochondria are either in the late stage of dividing, or an early stage of fusing. White dots are 18 nm gold particles conjugated to an antibody against Mannheimia haemolytica leukotoxin. Accelerating voltage was 5kV. Dhammika Atapattu, School of Veterinary Medicine, Univ. of Wisconsin, unpublished with permission.
Germinating Arabidopsis thaliana pollen. ca. 3300 X. From Sara Patterson, unpublished, with permission.
Zero Loss and Electron Energy Loss (EELS) spectroscopic images of natural mixtures of clay minerals and extracellular microbial polymers (clay mass is one micrometer across in shortest dimension)
Cell surface distribution of L-selectin adhesion protein on neutrophils. 16 nm gold-conjugated secondary antibody against LAM1-116 against L-selectin, Backscattered electron image using 5kV accelerating voltage. From Doug Steeber, Univ. Wisconsin - Milwaukee, with permission. Venturi, G.M., L. Tu, T. Kadono, A.I. Khan, Y. Fujimoto, P. Oshel, C.B. Brock, A.S. Miller, R.M. Albrecht, P. Kubes, D.A. Steeber and T.F. Tedder. Leukocyte Migration is Regulated by L-Selectin Endoproteolytic Release. Immunity 19:1-20.
3-D reconstruction of rat lung alveolus perfused with a synthetic hemoglobin solution (red) under conditions of high inflation pressure . Such pressures exclude red cells from alveoli, but the acellular solution nearly fills the alveolus shown. These solutions could improve oxygenation in trauma patients, for whom high lung inflation pressures are a necessity. (The image was modified using VoxBlast (Vaytek, Inc.). Robert Conhaim, 1999
One week course in the fundamentals of operating a Scanning Electron Microscope and X-ray microanalysis. Students learn about types, parts and analysis techniques, and specimen-beam interactions. Class focuses on hands-on experience learning and using an SEM.
