Alabama Neuroscience Blueprint Neuroimaging Core

Director

Kent Keyser, Ph.D.
Website: Neuroscience Core

The Neuroimaging Core expands currently available imaging modalities at UAB and dramatically enhances the ability to visualize neuronal structure and function in living experimental animals.

Expertise

The UAB Neuroscience Blueprint Neuroimaging Core (Core D) facility offers expertise and assistance in the following research capabilities:

• In vivo brain imaging through thinned skull or craniotomy; in vitro tissue slices
• Allow cellular imaging at depths not reachable by multiphoton through

Hardware

 Multiphoton laser scanning fluorescence microscope (Prairie Technologies Ultima IV). This system is dedicated to in vivo brain imaging through thinned skull or craniotomy, as well as for in vitro imaging of tissue slices (e.g. acute/cultured brain slices).

 An optical fiber based laser scanning confocal system (Leica FCM 1000) is available to allow cellular imaging at depths not reachable by multiphoton through the skull or cranial window. The fiber bundle is 300µm which allows minimally invasive imaging of deep structures.

 New Instrument Development - The HRF and Core D are collaborating on developing a Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) imaging system. This system, which was designed by Tong Ye, PhD, an Assistant Professor at UAB with a PhD in optics and significant experience in nonlinear phenomena, will cost about $80K compared to $1.3 M for a commercially available instrument. The UAB system, which is in the fabrication phase, will yield resolution of about 50nm in the x-y plane as compared to the 250-300 nm obtainable with conventional confocal microscopes.