Contact
New Bolton Center Kennett Square, PA
Emergencies & Appointments:
610-444-5800
Directions
Ryan Hospital Philadelphia, PA
Emergencies:
215-746-8911
Appointments:
215-746-8387
Directions

Services & Fees

The Department of Pathobiology maintains this facility and oversees the fee structure for this service center.

Microscope Fees
  Microscope Fees
Leica SP5-FLIM inverted
 $40/hour (+ $10/hour if using the pulse lasers)
Leica SP8-MP upright
 $40/hour (+ $15/hour if using the 2-photon laser)
GE DeltaVision OMX$30/hour (reduced to $15/hour for overnight live imaging)
Leica DM6000 widefield
 $10/hour
Yokagawa spinning disk
 $25/hour (reduced to $15/hour off-peak rate from 8pm-8am
 and on weekends)
MDC ImageXpress  
$25/hour (reduced to $10/hour off-peak rate from 8pm-8am and on weekends)
TIRF*
 $30/hour*
* The TIRF microscope is not a core microscope but is available to core users by special arrangement with Dr. Bruce Freedman.  Please contact the core manager at goruthel@vet.upenn.edu to schedule time on the TIRF microscope.

Scheduling Core Instruments

Registered users can access the PVIC online scheduler to reserve and use the Penn Vet Imaging Core instruments.

If you are not already registered, please contact the core manager.

Training & Assistance

Training and assistance on the microscopes are provided at no additional charge above the normal cost of microscope use. Additional training, assistance (within reason), and advice on sample preparation and image analysis are likewise provided free of charge.

Software Information
MetaMorph
 Free  The core has two copies of MetaMorph: one on the computer associated with the Yokagawa Spinning Disk Confocal and one in the core manager’s office room 313 Hill Pavilion.  Although there is substantial overlap in the features within these tow copies, the version in 313 Hill contains some additional analysis features not present on the version used for acquisition on the Spinning Disk Confocal.
Volocity
 $1/hour
  Volocity is particularly useful for visualization and analysis of 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional datasets.  The software can be downloaded onto your own computer and accessed using PVIC licenses for Volocity via our license server.  The $1/hour charge for license use helps to partially offset the annual cost of the software maintenance agreement, which provides you with unlimited help over the telephone from the expert Volocity support team at 1-866-310-0932.    To register to use our Volocity license server, please contact the core manager at goruthel@vet.upenn.edu.
 Imaris Free  The core has a single license for Bitplane’s Imaris image analysis software, which is available on the workstation computer in the core manager’s office room 313 Hill Pavilion.  The license includes the following modules: Imaris, ImarisMeasurementPro, ImarisTrack, ImarisColoc, ImarisVantage, ImarisCell, and ImarisXT.  An alternative to Volocity, this is a visualization and analysis software for 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional datasets that provides an interface with MatLab via the ImarisXT module.
Huygens Deconvolution
FreeA single copy of Huygens Essential deconvolution/ image restoration software by Scientific Volume Imaging is available for use with Leica LIF files on the workstation computer in the core manager’s office. This software can be used on image stacks taken on the core’s Leica DM6000B widefield epifluorescence microscope to remove out of focus haze from the images to yield almost confocal quality images. Image stacks taken with the core’s Leica SP5 or SP8 confocal microscopes can be deconvolved to yield super-resolution images, provided image acquisition was optimized to make the most of the available optical resolution.
SimFCS (Globals for Images)
 Free
 SimFCS is software developed by Enrico Gratton of the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) and can be used to produce Phasor plots of FLIM data and analyze FRET interactions, analyze Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) data, and for single particle tracking.  SimFCS is available on the computer associated with the FLIM microscope and in the core manager’s office (Hill 313).  Tutorials on SimFCS are available on the LFD website:http://www.lfd.uci.edu/globals/tutorials/.

Seminar Series

The Penn Vet Imaging Core, in association with the CDB Microscopy Core at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wistar Imaging Facility, sponsors monthly Microscopy Interest Group (MIG) seminars on topics related to microscopy.  If you would like to be notified of upcoming MIG seminars, please contact the core manager (goruthel@vet.upenn.edu) to be added to the Penn Vet Imaging Core mailing list.