Advanced Microscopy unit

Department of Pathology

Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki

About this Unit

The Advanced Microscopy Unit is a core facility of Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, located at Meilahti Bio-medical campus of the university. The unit serves for research projects in Haartman Institute, Biomedicum, and occasionally, for groups from other department within University of Helsinki. The unit also serves for clinical diagnostic work from Department of Pathology, Department of Virology HUS hospital and gets support from HUS Lab.
AMU is a member of the Helsinki Functional Imaging Center (HFIC) which is a Finnish national research infrastructure, member of Nordic Network on Imaging in Medicine and Biology (NIN), and European Light Microscopy Initiative (ELMI).

Equipped with electron microscope, laser scanning confocal microscope, various bright field light microscopes, and image capture devices and image analyzer, devices for Video Enhanced Contrast DIC Microscopy (VEC-DIC), a variety of microscopic techniques can be used in the unit.

Taking advantage of high resolution of Electron microscopy, routing observation of ultra-thin section from resin embedded tissue or cells, immuno-EM based on pre- or post-embedding methods, or on frozen section can be easily done. Whole mount cells with or without immuno-labeling suitable for studying cytoskeleton or cell surface structure is also an established technique in this unit.

Taking advantages of depth discrimination or optical sectioning effects of laser scanning confocal microscopy, tomographic view of the cells or tissue can be taken like you are taking a CT image from a cell or tissue block. 3-D reconstruction from the optically sliced series section can be made and viewed from different angle or animated. Thick specimen does not pose a problem in confocal microscopy. Physiological studies like calcium or other ion concentration monitoring is also possible. Some special fluorescent techniques like FRET, FRAP can be easily applied in confocal microscopy. With multi-detectors equipped, multi-labeled specimen which must be detected simultaneously can be easily resolved in confocal microscopy.

Apart from above-mentioned specific application of confocal microscopy, for ordinary fluorescent application, if problematic fluorescence specimen, such as strong background, strong cross-talking in multi-fluorescent dye labeled specimen, if the specimen can provide enough signal to noise ratio, laser scanning confocal microscopy is the right tool to choose.

Living cell imaging is a field depends heavily on the development of rapid detecting device, powerful computer hardware and software, environment chamber which provides the suitable condition for living cells and for recording image in long time period without severe focus shifting. In this unit, all these are possible: Video enhanced DIC microscopy, fluorescent living cell imaging with sensitive CCD camera, or with high resolution image capturing by confocal microscope.

Digital Image Processing and Analysis is an ever growing field. This unit  have some commercial or free software packages for it.  Users are encouraged to come and try to explore it. Some knowledge about digital image processing operators is needed to run them efficiently. For more technical details, refer to Facilities and Services sections on the site.

The unit is situated at P floor, Room DK139, Haartmaninkatu 3, Haartman institute, Helsinki.
The best way for getting access to it is taking the central elevator from main lobby of the building, one floor down to P-floor, walking out of the elevator, ten meters away on the left-hand side, a few steps up, you are in front of the unit.