Access to Advanced Light Microscopy

    ADM supports nearly 250 registered users, among which 150 active users (measured every 3 months) from IRB Barcelona and external entities, i.e. 5 public Institutions in Barcelona and over 20 private companies. Yearly usage has increased by 30% in 2010 with nearly 22,000 booked hours. In brief, ADM  offers 24/7 access to laser scanning spectral and multiphoton microscopy, spinning disk confocal microscopy, fully automated widefield and confocal screening, TIRF, laser manipulation (FRAP, laser nanosurgery, photoactivation), fluorescence macroscopy and stereoscopy, micromanipulation and microinjection, Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy.

 Service

    ADM assists scientist throughout the full process of microscopy experiments: design projects, teaching  techniques, introducing the use of instruments, processing data and analyzing images, assist scientists in interpreting and shaping final results.

    On top of this, ADM is responsible for the maintenance of the instruments, in close collaboration with industry partners, to provide non-stop services, 24/7.

 Development

    We develop and give access to highly specialized instruments, which either are not commercially available or outperform existing commercial systems, e.g. laser nanosurgery for living cells and organisms or selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) for large samples (organs, tumours).

    ADM started official collaborations with European Industry partners to develop software and hardware solutions in high-throughput  Imaging and 3D Imaging. Common goals of these collaborations are the release of open-access software tools for the scientific community and give open access to external scientists to newly developed instruments and techniques at IRB Barcelona.

    In particular, ADM has set up a new instrument  based on Lightsheet Illumination dedicated to 3D-Imaging of full organs and tumours. Another technique on which ADM started development is focused on ‘Intelligent Screening’ with the Leica HCS Matric-CAM software module.

    ADM has official collaborations with the following partners:

    Leica Microsystems, Cytoo *, Izasa (Nikon distributors in Spain).  *: ADM serves as reference site for the company

 Image Processing

    ADM has started a new branch of activity to answer important lacks in the panel of available commercial software for Image processing.  We focus on developing custom software tools to answer the specific needs of every scientist and accelerate/improve the outcome of microscopy experiments. We also develops signal processing tools and data analysis routines to address the new challenges brought by the large amounts of data generated by high-throughput and 3D Imaging.

 Network

    ADM stands among the most advanced light microscopy platforms in Spain and is an active member of the newly created

    ADM, through IRB Barcelona, also takes part in EuroBioImaging (European network Infrastructure for Biomedical and Life Science Imaging, part of the ESFRI Roadmap) as a stakeholder.

NEW: The ADM facility is a Euro-BioImaging Proof-of-Concept-Site in Spain.

Find more information at www.eurobioimaging.eu