The objective of the CNC Core is to provide state-of-the-art equipment and technical support for experimental projects using animal models in neuroscience research. By sharing technical expertise, equipment, facilities, and professional staff, this Core facilitates cross-project collaborations among different CNC laboratories.

Shelby 962

• Zeiss AxioImager upright brightfield and fluorescence microscope for automated stereology
  • Filters include: DAPI, GFP, CY3/rhodamine, and Texas Red
  • Dry and oil-immersion objectives
  • Equipped with a five megapixel Zeiss mRc5 camera along with Zeiss AxioVision software and a Dell personal computer
  • Stereo investigator software allows unbiased estimate of cell populations and morphometric properties of biological structures

Shelby 1062

• Image Analysis Workstations
  • StereoInvestigator, Imaris, and NeuroLucida for quantitative image analyses including neuron tracking, 3D Sholl dendritic complexity/branching analysis, automated dendritic spine detection and morphological categorization, co-localization, particle tracking, and unbiased stereological cell counting

Shelby 1075A

• In vivo “miniscope” imaging system and analysis computer
  • iNSCOPIX nVoke, blue light excitation; green emission (e.g. GCaMP, dLight); video rate; head-mounted for freely moving mice
    Surgery Suite (Shelby 1031A)

Shelby 1075B

• Leica FCM1000 in vivo Fiber-Optic Confocal system
  
  • Designed to access virtually anywhere in a living animal, e.g., imaging deep brain regions and peripheral nervous system 
  • Single-line excitation wavelength: 488nm
  • Fluorescence emission bandwidth: 505-700nm
  • Frame rate: 11 frames/second
  • Imaging resolution: 3.3um
  • Probes: S300/B (diameter 300 um; field-of-view 300 um); S1500 (diamter 1.5mm; field-of-view 600x500um)

Shelby 929
Video-EEG Monitoring Laboratory
Contact: Farah Lubin, PhD (flubin@uab.edu)

• Rodent EEG Rat and mouse EEG, long-term and short-term, simultaneous in several rodents; funded by CNC, HSF, CIRC, and Neurobiology (RSB-430C)

Shelby 920
Molecular Biology

• BioRad "Gene-Gun" for biolistic transfection and fluorescence labeling of adherent cells and slices (neurons, glia)
• Tissue culture room, cDNA plasmid expansion

Shelby 1075A
Optogenetics

• Plexon Blue and Yellow LEDs with bare fiber optic for in vitro slices
• Plexon Blue and Yellow LEDs with fiber optic launch for cannulas and commutator for in vivo behaving rodents

Fees per Service

Confocal Microscope	$10/hour
Stereology Microscope	$10/hour
Image Analysis Workstations	$5/hour
Initial Training	$20/hour

Billing quarterly to Oracle account. Fees waived for undergraduate students performing formal research projects (e.g., UNP, PREP, etc.).

Contact
CNC
cnc@uab.edu