Director: Dr. Stephen Armstrong,

The operation and maintenance of the Olympus FVX will be performed by the Imaging Core Facility.

Mission Statement
The Imaging Core facility is currently expanding its mission to broaden the users group within the SDHRF and the level of sophisticated confocal microscopy applications that are utilized on the Olympus FVX. These renovations in the tasking of the Olympus FVX will require a refinement in the management and organizational infrastructure of the Imaging Core facility.

This renovation in the mission and the management of the Imaging Core Facility will be modeled upon the successful implementation of the other Core Facilities that are administrated within the current SDHRF COBRE.

Daily Operations
The daily operations of the Imaging Core will be performed by Kelly Graber, M.S. The activities of Kelly will be overseen and aided by Melody Scott. Melody has extensive experience in chromosomal analysis, utilizing light and fluorescence microscopy and this can be applied to the maintenance of a confocal microscopy system.
These members of the Imaging Core facility and representatives from each laboratory have receive advanced training on the Olympus FVX from Steve Ricchio, the Digital Imaging Specialist at Leeds Precision Instrument, Minneapolis, MN.

All individuals that plan to operate the Olympus FVX will receive standard training from individuals trained by Steve Ricchio.

Trained investigators, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and research associates will conduct their specific studies with the assistance of Ms. Graber and Ms. Scott.

Dr. Armstrong has committed the resources of the Imaging Core facility to the goal of refining the confocal microscopy skills of all personnel at the SDHRF, utilizing the Olympus FVX to advance the current capabilities of the investigators and research associates.

Training updates will be provided to the members of the users group by the staff of the Imaging Core Facility. This will prepare our personnel to fully utilize the sophisticated applications that will be permitted by the Olympus FluoView 1000, which was recently requested in an NIH Small Instrumentation Grant.

Maintenance of Instrument and Time Allocation
The primary emphasis of the Imaging Core facility will be routine maintenance of the instrument and immediate recognition of current or potential problems. The Imaging Core facility staff will enact the expedited correction of these problems by basic repairs that are within the training capacity of the staff or by alerting representatives of Leeds Precision Instrument of the need for repairs.

The staff of the Imaging Core Facility will enact this monitoring of the current status of the instrument by reviewing the images that are obtained by investigators, to verify that the instrument is operating in an optimal mode.
We will enforce a rule that reservations for the Olympus FVX must be submitted at least 24 hours in advance onto an Outlook calendar that was created by Kelly Graber. These logs will be monitored daily to regulate usage of the microscope and to identify sources of instrument problems.

Additionally, we will initiate an individual log-in and log-off policy to monitor the time and dates of entry onto the confocal microscope system. These log-in entries will be immediately correlated to recognized problems in the instrument.
These surveillance methods will be utilized to identify gaps in the training of confocal microscopy users and not for punitive purposes. The requested instrument will be utilized solely for data acquisition with all data and image analysis occurring on an Imaging workstation that has been established on the Seventh floor.

The Imaging Core staff will be responsible for overseeing the utilization of the instrument and offering the level of assistance that is required and requested by each principal investigator. Thus, one Principal Investigator can provide a sample and request cryostat sectioning immuno-staining by the Imaging Core staff, with the images subjected to image analysis and electronically transferred to the X-file. These requests will be scheduled through a separate Outlook calendar that will be established by Kelly Graber. Alternatively, another Principal Investigator will prepare the microscopic samples in their laboratory and the Principal Investigator or their Research Associates will acquire the images and data, with the oversight of the Imaging Core Staff. This will provide the level of service that is appropriate for each investigator to permit the efficient and productive utilization of the Olympus FVX. We will establish a three tiered approach to the supervision of investigators.

Level 1 will be those individuals that have basic training and require direct oversight and input from the staff of the Imaging Core Facility.
Level 2 will be those individuals that possess moderate levels of training and can operate the instrument with indirect supervision by the staff.
Level 3 will be investigators that have advanced training and can operate the instrument independently, including after hours or on weekends or holidays.

The purpose of this three tiered system is to maintain the operational capability of the instrument and yet permit investigators the freedom to pursue their research, based upon their level of training.

Procedures

Start up procedure

Shut down procedure

New FV1000 confocal microscope available.

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