Located on the top floor of the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute just steps away from our campus, the ZEISS Microscopy Solutions Center has opened, serving as a research resource for scientists, a training site for ZEISS technicians, and a product development resource for ZEISS engineers.
On Wednesday, the microscopy center held an opening reception and panel discussion that looked back at the effort involved in creating the center, looking forward to the possibilities it holds. CFO James Lapple, neuroscientist Gavin Rumbaugh, Ph.D. and Academic Affairs Director Courtney Miller, Ph.D., represented The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology at the event. Rumbaugh and other speakers celebrated the efforts of the many leaders and scientists who helped nurture the project, including UF’s senior vice president for health affairs, David Nelson, M.D..
Kenny Patterson, president of Carl Zeiss Microscopy North America, recalled a visit to this campus more than 12 years ago, when the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience was still in the blueprint stage.
“I was here when (former Gov.) Jeb Bush got involved and got Max Planck and Scripps going. It brings me a lot of pride to see what is happening here, and what’s happening elsewhere in Florida,” Patterson said. “Florida is on the map.”
Rumbaugh discussed areas of possible future collaboration, such as the need for massively parallel data, and microscopy that provides both context and detail.
“There are countless numbers of neural cell types, and they function together to transmit information across the brain. When that doesn’t happen, that’s when you get brain disorders,” Rumbaugh said. “The challenge of neuroscience is understanding biology across scales.”
Equipment available at the training center currently includes the ZEISS Lattice Lightsheet 7, the LSM 980 Confocal microscope, the inverted Axio Observer 7, and the Axio Imager M2, plus software for multi-modal and multi-dimensional microscopy that scales, parallelizes, integrates and connects image data. The equipment can image macro samples in the milimeter range on the Axio Zoom, down to 120 nanometers on the LSM 980 with Airyscan, said Kimberly Toops, Ph.D., head of customer experience at ZEISS Research Microscopy Solutions.
To learn more about the center and its equipment, go to the Jupiter Solutions Center (zeiss.com) webpage, and contact David Kloetzer, the center’s operations specialist.
Open Hours are currently scheduled for the following times:
- Thursday, June 6, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Friday, June 7 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, June 12 from 9 a.m. to noon
- Friday, June 14 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.