LOCATION:
Palazzo delle Scienze, floor IV, room IV.04
RESEARCH TOPICS:
The laboratory performs classical and integrated widefield fluorescence microscopy analyses with the modular super-resolution THUNDER Imager 3D Cell Culture Leica system. The THUNDER system enables morphological and functional analyses for investigating biochemical, physiological and pathophysiological processes on fresh or fixed preparations of cells in monolayer, 3D cell cultures, tissue sections and organoids, whole model organisms, allowing clear visualisation of details, even deep within intact samples, in real time and without blurring.
The instrumentation can also be used in integration with advanced microscopy systems available at other core facilities of DISTAV (Scanning Electron Microscopy-SEM Laboratory, Raman Spectroscopy and Microscopy Laboratory), and with the Stellaris 8 TAU-STED (Leica) confocal microscopy system at DIFILab.
MAIN USERS:
The laboratory is a transversal core facility used by researchers from various disciplines belonging to DISTAV (Physiology, Comparative and developmental anatomy, Zoology, Microbiology, Molecular biology, Botany), DIMI and IBF-CNR.
RESEARCH APPLICATIONS:
The technology implemented in the THUNDER system is optimal for many biological applications in research projects in the environmental field (e.g., identification and characterisation of invertebrates, developmental biology, monitoring of key species in aquatic ecosystems, particularly marine, analysis of pollen and fungal species) and biomedical field (e.g., regenerative medicine, stem cell research in the oncological field, bioengineering).
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT:
Olympus IX53 inverted fluorescence microscope equipped with a UC30 CCD camera and digital imaging software (cellSens Entry)
Leica DMi8 inverted fluorescence microscope equipped with THUNDER Imager 3D Cell System
TEACHING ACTIVITIES:
The equipment is also of strategic value for second- and third-level teaching and training, as it can be used to carry out internships, stages, and experimental theses of the numerous DISTAV Master's Degrees in biology, ecology, biomedicine, geology (LM6, LM60, LM74), as well as PhD theses (DISTAV PhD in Science and Technology for the Environment and Territory-STAT and PhD in Marine Science and Technology, Marine Ecosystem Science curriculum).