Special Focus

17th Annual Live Cell Microscopy Course

Although Prairie will not be participating or sponsoring this year, we are pleased to support their efforts.

The Seventeenth Annual International 12-day Short Course on 3D Microscopy of Living Cells will be June 9-21, 2012. The Sixteenth Post-course Workshop on 3D Image Processing will be June 23-25, 2012. The course is organized by Prof. James Pawley, University of Wisconsin-Madison, in association with the Departments of Pharmacology and Physiology and the Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Dates

• Applications must be received by Thursday, March 15, 2012
• Deposit is due on Monday, April 16, 2012
• Registration will be 5:00-7:00 PM Saturday, June 9, 2012
• First lecture will be at 7:30 PM Saturday, June 9, 2012
• Live-cell Course ends, noon Thursday, June 21, 2012
• 3D Image Processing Course, Saturday, June 23 - Monday, June 25, 2012

Applications

Applicants must complete a brief, on-line questionnaire to assess knowledge level, field of interest and proposed personal, live-cell, project. (But don't let the Personal Project aspect put you off: if you plan to use 3D microscopy on living cells, we can usually find a way to make it work. Many lab managers take the course. as do those looking for "extended, hands-on, demos" on the latest instruments.)

Enrollment will be limited to about 32 participants (exact number depends on number of 3D Systems available). Selection will be made on the basis of background and perceived need. Those without previous LM experience will be provided with access to basic texts to read before the course begins.

Application forms may be filled out online or obtained from:

Prof. James B. Pawley
21. N. Prospect Ave.
Madison, WI 53726
USA

Phone : 608-238-3953
Fax : 608-262-9083
Email : JBPAWLEY@WISC.EDU

Tuition

Application forms must be received for screening by March 15, 2012. Successful applicants will be notified by April 1, and a deposit of at least 50% should be received by April 16, 2012. Any remaining balance is due before Registration.

• Pre-Course Tuition (1/2 day Basic Optical principles) $150 (US)
• 3D Live-cell Course Tuition (includes lunches, 2 big snacks each day and 3 dinners, and the
• NEW Third Edition of the Handbook of Biological Confocal Microscopy): $3,350 (US)
• 3D IP Workshop Tuition (includes lunches, snacks, final dinner): $1,650 (US)
• Room/board cost about $50/day (US) depending on room type.

For more information, please see the Live Cell Microscopy Course website.

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New Grant for Advanced Detection Development

Prairie Technologies, in collaboration with LOCI at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Connecticut, has been awarded an RO1 grant from the NIH for development of (advanced) detection techniques:

The use of multiphoton laser scanning microscopy (MPLSM) to improve intravital imaging in physiologically relevant animal models holds particular promise for cancer studies. MPLSM has many advantages for intravital imaging, including high resolution, deep sectioning, and improved tissue viability. Moreover, MPLSM when coupled with second harmonic, fluorescent lifetime and spectral imaging approaches holds the promise of exploiting intrinsic sources of contrast that obviate the need for exogenous labels. Currently, there are no commercial MPLSM systems on the market that are well suited for this task in vivo. The overall objective of the research aims is to add new multimodality functionality to the Prairie Technologies Ultima IV MPSLM for intravital microscopy in animal models of carcinoma progression. This instrument will permit imaging of tumor cells invading into local stroma, analysis of changes in the collagen stroma by second harmonic generation (SHG), visualization of metabolic changes that accompany tumor growth and progression, and investigation of signaling molecules in vivo, especially those that may be relevant to tumor growth, survival, progression, invasion, or metastasis.

We propose the following specific Aims, through which we will augment the capabilities of the Ultima to achieve these goals.

1. Develop optical and software approaches for SHG signal collection and analysis
2. Develop a new acquisition system for the Ultima IV that will consist of new software and hardware for simultaneous intensity, spectral and lifetime visualization.
3. Develop an adaptive optics system for correct system aberrations to enable image acquisition from deeper within living specimens.

These animal studies will pave the technology for future development of imaging and visualization approaches that have the potential to improve the diagnosis and staging of human disease. We envision that the development of a user-friendly, turn-key multiphoton microscope will facilitate the use of this technology by pathologists. Moreover, these technologies could be a future adjunct to surgery. The understanding of tumor progression that will result from imaging animal models will have a positive impact on targeting future therapies.

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New Product: Prairie SGS Mini-Scanner now on an Inverted Microscope

To meet the demands of researchers who need the inverted microscope platform to achieve their imaging goals, Prairie integrated the new SGS-mini-scanner with the Zeiss Axio Observer inverted microscope. Combining inverted imaging with the power of two-photon microscopy offers advantages in the fields of live cell and culture research:

• For standard live cell work that requires long imaging sessions, the longer wavelengths are great for preventing bleaching of the cells being imaged.
• For cell culture work, having the objective below the specimen allows observation of cells in a dish or on a coverslip without disturbing the culture as would be experienced with a standard upright dipping lens.

Additionally, two-photon imaging on an inverted system has been shown to help with overcoming challenges faced by researchers regarding organ movement during breathing, especially peritoneal organs (which can be difficult to image in vivo).

Please contact Prairie for more information and pricing on this system.