NOBIC looks after imaging facilities at LKCMedicine and SCELSE, ensures the microscopes are in a good working order and troubleshoot technical issues. We train users in microscope operation, assist them with issues encountered during their experiments and collaborate with them on advanced imaging experiments and image analysis. Do not hesitate to contact us (nobic.facilities[..]e.ntu.edu.sg) to help you with any aspects of your imaging experiments. For more information visit:

Advanced Biofilm Imaging Facility (ABIF) at SCELSE

Advanced Optical Bio-Imaging Platform (AOBIP) at LKCMedicine

The imaging facilities are located in LKCMedicine Experimental Medicine Building (NTU Main Campus), Clinical Sciences Building (Novena Campus) and in SCELSE. See the details of each microscope for its location.

Important Note

When publishing (in the form of journal articles, talks, posters, social media posts etc.) any images obtained at NOBIC facilities and/or any results derived from those images, kindly acknowledge the facility. Suggested acknowledgment text follows:

"Microscopy images were acquired at NTU Optical Bio-Imaging Centre (NOBIC) imaging facilities at LKCMedicine*/SCELSE*."
(*select whichever applies)

In case NOBIC staff assisted you in your experiment or image processing and analysis, kindly add:

"Assistance of NOBIC staff with image acquisition* / processing* / analysis* is acknowledged." (*select whichever applies)

Do not hesitate to contact us if you need advice on describing the microscopy experiment in Materials & Methods (or analogous) section of your manuscript to ensure the description contains all details needed to reproduce the experiment.

For New Users

To use the imaging facilities, register in our equipment booking system (by registering as imaging facility user you accept the facility usage policies for ABIF and SOPs for microscope booking, utilisation monitoring, incident reporting and equipment maintenance applicable to AOBIP). When using the facilities, kindly follow these essential guidelines. Usage of imaging facilities equipment requires training consisting of 3 parts:

• Safety training required to work at LKCMedicine laboratories and/or SCELSE laboratories. If you plan to use a microscope containing lasers, you will also need NTU online laser safety module (Working with Non-Ionising Radiation - OHS2NIR01) and in some cases NEA N3 laser license (check with us if in doubt).
  
  
• MyScope online modules developed by Microscopy Australia:
  • Introduction to microscopy
  • Work safety in a microscopy laboratory
  • Light microscopy techniques - depending on the equipment you are planning to use (e.g. if you will be applying for confocal microscopy training, take options 1. - 3.)
    1. Basics and Brightfield
    2. Fluorescence Microscopy
    3. Confocal Microscopy
    4. Super-resolution Microscopy (basics)
    5. Super-resolution - Localisation Microscopy
    Kindly go through the relevant modules before the hands-on training, take the quiz in the last module (don’t worry it only concerns the most basic concepts covered by the modules) and share with us your success. Completing the quiz is a prerequisite for the hands-on training and you will be asked to submit the quiz result in the Training request.
    
    
• Hands-on training; kindly submit a Training request in the booking system to identify which microscope(s) will work the best for you and plan the training.

Microscopes

Key to microscope quick details (location / fluorophores & filters / objectives):

Location: Experimental Medicine Building (E), Clinical Sciences Building (C) and SCELSE (S).

Fluorophores & filters (for fluorophore spectra refer e.g. to FPbase):

• by exc. wavelength: (1) DAPI-like ( ≤ 405 nm), (2) CFP-like (420-460 nm), (3) FITC/GFP-like (470-490 nm), (4) YFP-like (500-520 nm), (5) Cy3/DsRed-like (530-560 nm), (6) mCherry/A568-like (560-590 nm), (7) Cy5-like (620-650 nm), (8) Cy7-like (>650 nm)
• (F) fixed exc. and em. filter pairs, (F) (at least partially) flexible combination of exc. and em., (F) freely selectable emission range/spectral detection

Objectives:

• by magnification: (A) < 4x, (A) 4-5x, (A) 10x, (A) 16-32x, (A) 40-50x, (A) 60-75x, (A) 100-150x
• by immersion & working distance: (A) air, (W) water, (O) oil, (S) silicone, (A) long working distance (≥ 2 mm or compatible with regular plastic-bottom dishes)

Epifluorescence microscopes

Live-cell epifluorescence (inverted) microscopes

Inverted confocal microscopes

Upright confocal microscopes

Lightsheet microscopes

TIRF and Super-resolution microscopes

Multi-photon microscopes

High-throughput microscopes

Specialised microscopes

Stereo microscopes

Microscope-Fluorophore Selector

Excitation: (XXX nm) laser line of XXX nm, (F) filter set with fixed exc. and em. filter pair, (F) (at least partially) flexible combination of exc. and em. filters, (F) freely selectable emission range/spectral detection

Objectives: (A) air, (W), (O) oil, (S) silicone, (G) glycerine, (A) long working distance (≥ 2 mm or compatible with regular plastic-bottom dishes)

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