Microscopy

Microscopy is one of the Garvan Institute’s major capabilities. The Garvan has a dedicated Microscopy Facility located in the basement of The Kinghorn Cancer Centre as well as various microscopes throughout the Garvan and Kinghorn buildings to provide researchers and visiting scientists with easy access to a huge variety of state-of-the-art imaging techniques for single-molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, intra-vital and whole animal imaging.

The principal microscopes include:

  • Leica DM 6000 Power Mosaic: Advanced transmitted light and widefield fluorescence microscope with high speed stepping stage and focus for fast scanning and mosaic image acquisition
  • Leica DMI 6000 : Advanced widefield fluorescence microscope for live cells also with lasers for total internal reflection fluorescence imaging and autofocus
  • Leica DMI 6000 SP8 : Advanced laser scanning confocal microscope
  • Leica DMI 6000 SP8 SMD MP: Advanced confocal and multiphoton fluorescence microscope for live cells and tissues with high speed (12K) resonant- and field-of-view- scanners and equipment for fluorescence lifetime imaging

These and a number of our other instruments are capable of imaging tissue, cells or intracellular organelles and molecules using a variety of transmitted light (brightfield, phase contrast, interference contrast) and fluorescence-based techniques; such as epifluorescence, laser scanning confocal and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF-M, ‘evanescent wave microscopy’). Two of our microscopes are permanently set up with incubation equipment to allow live cell time-lapse microscopy for short (hours) or long (days) term experiments using any of our available imaging techniques even at high speeds.

In addition, we have equipment to perform experiments using techniques such as Förster Resonant Energy Transfer (FRET), fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), colocalization analysis by either confocal, fluorescence or TIRF microscopy.

For more information, please click here

For further information please contact Dr William Hughes at w.hughes@garvan.org.au.