Molecular Cytogenetics and Microscopy Core
Services and Cost Recovery Charges
1. Molecular Cytogenetics
The Molecular Cytogenetic service offered by the group consists in a range of different Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (FISH) applications including:
- Metaphase and Interphase FISH (chromosomal assignment and clone ordering)
- Fibre-FISH (high resolution mapping
- Chromosome Painting
- M-FISH (multicolour karyotyping)
- RNA-FISH (cell-based gene expression assay)
- FISH on paraffin sections (analysis of archive material)
- ImmunoFISH (combined FISH and Immunofluorescence)
- Copy number variation (Affymetrix GeneChip Cytogenetics Array system).
Related Tissue Culture Techniques:
- Revival and maintenance of transformed cell lines
- Establishment of primary cell cultures
- Chromosome preparations from cell lines, blood cultures and fibroblast cultures
Probe Preparation:
- DNA mini-preps
- DNA labeling by nick-translation
The Core group can also provide support with the following cytological techniques:
- Immunofluorescence
- Chromogenic RNA in situ hybridization (ISH) [the Core maintains a Leica CM-3050-S cryostat for histological sectioning]
Additional
- General consultation and pre-application advice on research projects involving Molecular Cytogenetics and other immunofluorescence cytological techniques
- Hands-on training in Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (FISH) and immunoctytochemistry
2. Microscopy
As part of the Microscopy Service made available by the group, the laboratory houses the following fluorescence microscopes and related imaging facilities for common use within the Centre:
- A Zeiss 510 Meta confocal microscope in inverted configuration suitable for glass slides and live cell work
- A wide-field inverted Nikon TE2000U fluorescence microscope fitted with 1x to 60x objectives with separate B&W fluorescence and colour video cameras to image both slides and cells in culture
- An Olympus BX-51 upright wide-field microscope for imaging samples on glass slides, suitable for FISH and chromosome analysis with Applied Imaging's Genus software or general image capture and analysis using MetaMorph acquisition software
- Access to the Core's Leica CM-3050-S Cryostat
Plus there are a few stand-alone image analysis and processing PC workstations running Applied Imaging Genus, NIS Elements, IPLab, MetaMorph v7.5 with Fluor Co-localisation, ImageJ and Improvision Volocity deconvolution software v4.2.
Services provided:
- Day to day care of the instruments
- General technical support and help with troubleshooting
- Training sessions on the microscope(s) of choice
- Advice on microscopy, live cell imaging, image acquisition, image processing, image analysis and photo editing
- Advice on the design and practical execution of immunofluorescence experiments (including provision of protocols and few aliquotes of key reagents to start off)
Our Cost Recovery Charges
The use of our microscopes and image analysis workstations are free for all Wellcome Centre staff. We operate a cost recovery system for the molecular cytogenetic services we offer, although this is a minimal charge and only recovers the cost of the consumables we have to use for the techniques.
Download our cost recovery charges as an Adobe pdf file. You may also download our Core flyer detailing the Molecular Cytogenetic services we offer.