The contribution of these technologies to the understanding of a wide variety of cell biological processes is countless, and our core facilities are equipped with an excellent team of researchers and operators, as well as a cutting-edge instrument park that is adapted to the needs of the scientists of both Amsterdam UMC locations and beyond. .
Location AMC
The Cellular Imaging facility offers a wide variety of electron-, confocal- & living cell microscopy, flow cytometry and cell sorting instruments,as well as required data infrastructure, training and extensive expertise. Highlights include correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM), functional imaging (F-techniques FRAP and FLIM), superresolution, lightsheet, multi-well time-lapse imaging, (cryo-)transmission and scanning electron microscopy, flow spectral analysis and Imagestream, and platforms for AI neural network-based detection and analysis. This facility is open for all AmsterdamUMC researchers and currently has over 500 active users, serves over 40 departments and organize 10 different basic and advanced courses on microscopy, flow and data-analysis.
The core facility staff of 12 persons provide individual hands-on training on instruments and methodologies, data-analysis and discussion of data. Together with the FNWI and NKI, the facility is part of the Van Leeuwenhoek Center for Advanced Microscopy (LCAM) and participating in the NEMI and NL- and Euro-BioImaging consortia. Requesting access, information and support is provided via our website including a web-based scheduling tool .
Location VUmc
Our Microscopy and Cytometry Core Facility grew around the Immunology, Cancer Research, and Neuroscience communities at the VUmc location in order to fulfill their current and future needs; but we are, of course, open to all researchers at the Amsterdam UMC, VU, and ACTA. We have a strong focus on high-end high-throughput cell and tissue immunophenotyping, sorting anything from exosomes to iPSCs, single cell RNAseq, live cell imaging with various levels of super-resolution, in vivo and 3D imaging, and the application of artificial intelligence to both microscopy and cytometry data. In addition, we are constantly developing and making available to the community a broad bank of directly conjugated antibodies.
Besides our high-end applications, we also provide access to standard flow cytometers and microscopes for routine operation at the VU/VUmc campus. In addition to tailored advice and operation support for our equipment, we also organize advanced microscopy and cytometry courses for PhD students and PostDocs. Our core facility is involved in two public-private partnerships with Nikon (Amsterdam UMC – Nikon Center of Excellence) and Cytek Biosciences (Spectral Cytometry Knowledge Center). Thanks to these collaborations, our users have access to cutting edge technology and expertise provided by these companies. Requesting access and support is provided via our web-based scheduling tool.