France-BioImaging provides many technologies for biological imaging on different imaging core facilities. Access depends on the local rules and the majority of imaging systems can be booked online with hourly billing after on-site training by facility staffs.

Two categories of technologies are available within France BioImaging

  • Advanced Light Microscopy Imaging Systems (including regular and automated wide field microscopy, Laser Scanning confocal microscopes, Spinning Disk confocal microscopes…), that you can consult by visiting websites of the France BioImaging Infrastructure (see below)
  • Sophisticated and Innovative Imaging Systems are also accessible. They cover the following technologies and methods: High-resolution & single molecule tracking, Electron Microscopy & Multimodal Imaging, Confocal with innovative modalities, Fluorescence spectroscopy in microscopy, In depth & Intra-vital Imaging.

Available on sites:

Site

PICT-IBiSA Curie

PICT-IBiSA Curie

Director: Olivier Renaud (PICT-LM) & Daniel Levy (PICT-EM)

Info.pict@curie.fr
Institut Curie, Rue d'Ulm, Paris, France

The Cell and Tissue Imaging Platform (PICT-IBiSA) of the Institut Curie brings together advanced microscopy technologies. Its main objective is to provide researchers in cell biology, development, structural, chemistry and biophysics with imaging approaches at different spatial and dynamic scales ranging from the molecule, to the cell, to the organism in healthy or pathological contexts.

The platform is organized around 3 poles: photonic microscopy, high-content screening, electron microscopy and cryo-electron microscopy. Photonic microscopy extends from dynamic imaging to high resolution. High throughput microscopy allows cellular screening of chemical and siRNA banks. Electron microscopy and cryo-microscopy provide the molecular structure and cellular ultrastructure of biological samples. The platform also offers expertise in data processing and analysis.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

UTechS PBI – Pasteur

UTechS PBI – Pasteur

Director: Spencer Shorte

pbi.contact@pasteur.fr
Institut Pasteur, Rue du Docteur Roux, Paris, France

Photonic BioImaging is a Unit of Technology and Service (UTechS) providing optical imaging expertise in life sciences and especially their application in studies on infectious biology.

Our activities include service rendering, training, technology-driven research and technology development. They are highly multi-disciplined, and collaborative, with the mission goal focused on the use of quantitative imaging and analysis to understand the processes of cell/tissue-biology, and their usurpation by infection and disease. The R&D is founded upon the need to develop optical imaging methods that bring new understanding of host-pathogen interactions and in situ high-content imaging techniques and their application to infection, cell biology, cellular microbiology, and microbiology. We work on novel techniques extrapolating quantitative information on spatiotemporal dynamics in situ and we push the limits of existing approaches aiming to enhance their performance thereby broadening their experimental utility.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

UTechS UBI – Pasteur

UTechS UBI – Pasteur

Director: Jacomine Krijnse-Locker

jacomina.krijnse-locker@pasteur.fr
Institut Pasteur 25-28 Rue du Docteur Roux 75724, Paris CEDEX 15

Member of C2RT (Center for Resources and Research in Technology) the Unit for service and technology in ultra-structural bio-imaging  (UBI) at Pasteur provides technical and scientific support in electron microscopy, mainly, but not exclusively, to the Pasteur community, analyzing host-pathogen interactions at the ultra-structural level. Our equipment enables us to do state-of-the-art EM for life sciences that includes three dimensional EM by tomography and focused ion beam SEM. The ultrapole is run by ten members (eight engineers and two technicians), each specialized in certain techniques. We put a big emphasis on correlate light- and electron microscopy to study key (rare events) of host-pathogen interactions and we have designed several protocols to combine room temperature LM and cryo-LM with FIB-SEM, cryo-SEM and cryo-tomography.

The UBI also has a small research group focusing on large DNA-viruses. Through this research theme we wish to establish and develop robust, new protocols for various EM-techniques.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

Imagoseine – Institut Jacques Monod

Imagoseine – Institut Jacques Monod

Director: René-Marc Mège

rene-marc.mege@ijm.fr
Institut Jacques Monod, Paris, France

ImagoSeine imaging facility gathers advanced light microscopy, cytometry and electronic microscopy activities, installed on 450 m² at IJM. Rooms for cells and tissues manipulations are provided to external users. ImagoSeine has been assessed and found to meet the requirements of ISO 9001 by AFNOR Certification. ImagoSeine brings together technologies and expertise in these fields, thanks to the 7 permanent and 2 contractual engineers. The originality of ImagoSeine-IJM is the close collaboration between the imaging facility which have a long experience of making available standard approaches but also new developments to the biological community and a research team involved in the development of state of the art functional imaging technologies (FLIM-FRET; FCCS) and more recently superresolution and non-linear microscopy. The ultimate goal is to provide access and training to these emerging techniques and methods for the realization of competitive biological projects.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

ImaChem – IBENS

ImaChem – IBENS

Director: Laurent Bourdieu

École Normale Supérieure, Rue d'Ulm, Paris, France

The Imachem imaging platform provides advanced light and electronic microscopy techniques to IBENS researchers and external users. Imachem is operated by 5 engineers. The main originality of IMACHEM is its ability to undertake innovative technical developments in optical microscopy and to make them available to all users. The first expertise of the platform is super-resolution microscopy, with the development of 3D-PALM using adaptive optic methods. It can perform ultra-structural imaging and single-particle tracking in 3D with a few tens of nanometers of spatial resolution. The second expertise is ultrafast two-photon microscopy for in vivo functional recordings with a temporal resolution in the msec range. A two-photon microscope using acousto-optic scanners for 2D scanning was first designed and installed in the platform. A new system providing ultrafast 3D scanning is currently under development. Additionally, electron microscopy using high-pressure freezing will be developed for correlative light and EM imaging.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

Bordeaux Imaging Center

Bordeaux Imaging Center

Director: Daniel Choquet

bic@u-bordeaux.fr
Bordeaux Imaging Center, BIC, Bordeaux, France

The BIC (Bordeaux Imaging Center) offers resources in photonic and electronic imaging, mainly in life, health and plant sciences. It is a core facility identified at the national level as IBISA that gathers 12 highly skilled engineers. It has the ISO9001 label. The different components of the BIC are: PHOTONIC imaging, ELECTRONIC imaging, PLANT imaging. The Bordeaux Imaging Center offers access to the most advanced bio-imaging techniques for fixed and live cell imaging such as video-microscopy, confocal microscopy, multiphoton microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The BIC provides a unique set of high-end equipment for super- resolution microscopy such as STED confocal microscopy, FRAP video-microscopy, lifetime imaging FLIM for the measurement of molecular interactions. We also provide access to equipment for sample preparation such as ultra-microtoms, high pressure freeze (HPF) and we can host live samples.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

PICsL (Shared Imaging Platform of Luminy Campus)

PICsL (Shared Imaging Platform of Luminy Campus)

Director: Pierre-François Lenne

Faculté des Sciences de Luminy, Avenue de Luminy, Marseille, France

The  PICsL is located on the Luminy campus on two sites (IBDM and CIML ) that are within walking distance of each other. The PICSL offers a variety of state-of-the art imaging systems (multiphoton, confocal imaging, light sheet microscopy, super-resolution microscopy, electron microscopy). Mainly dedicated to developmental biology and immunology, the PICSL facility provides approaches for dynamic imaging, such as light sheet microscopy, super-resolution for tissue imaging (STED), multiphoton imaging but also more standard techniques such as time lapse imaging and confocal microscopy. Such methods are key to study quantitatively, the development of various animal species, and to decipher the operating mechanisms of the immune system, from molecules to whole organisms, such as Drosophila, C. elegans, Xenopus, chick, mice but also organotypic cultures and more recently organoids. The IBDM site also hosts an electron microscopy (EM) service. The EM service provides the scientific community with the expertise, material and electron microscopes necessary for molecular, cellular and tissue-level imaging by EM. Our service offer comprises the sample preparation with the following methods: negative staining, plastic embedding, immuno-labelling, high pressure freezing, freeze substitution, (cryo)-ultramicrotomy. We routinely use advanced imaging modes such as electron tomography (ET), Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy in « Serial Block-Face » mode, Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy (CLEM).

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

Imagerie-Gif

Imagerie-Gif

Director: Béatrice Satiat-Jeunemaitre

I2BC, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

The cell biology pole Imagerie-Gif is localized on the CNRS campus of Gif sur Yvette, in a new building dedicated to platform activity. This IBiSA platform provides efficient access to high quality services and state of the art technologies. It is open to the whole academic scientific community and to industrial partners. The management and development of this pole is under the responsibility of the team “Dynamics of cell compartmentation” (group leader B. Satiat-Jeunemaitre, Institut des Sciences du Végétal, Gif sur Yvette). It uses cell biology approaches and multiscale imaging (cytometry, bio-imaging and electron microscopy) to explore the cell. The development of new protocols and the mastering of update imaging approaches are part of the R & D objectives of the platform. Those are then transferred to platform services and disseminated through numerous training and teaching events, and opened to the whole scientific community. The cell biology pole of Imagerie-Gif activities contributes to the working groups “super resolution”, “Probe development” and “CLEM” within the France-BioImaging consortium.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

Montpellier Resource Imaging

Montpellier Resource Imaging

Director: Patrick Lemaire

patrick.lemaire@crbm.cnrs.fr
Université Montpellier 1, Montpellier, France

Montpellier Ressources Imagerie (MRI) is a distributed imaging facility present on six sites in Montpellier (www.mri.cnrs.fr). MRI is labeled IBiSA and certified ISO9001-2008 LQRA. It has a staff of 30 engineers and is directed by P. Lemaire (CNRS). MRI manages numerous microscopes (36 photonic and 2 electron microscopes) and 14 analysis workstations, and especially microscopes for long term or short live experiments. MRI offers a complete set of state-of-the-art technologies, from single molecule to small organism imaging. The platform offers and develops 3D-SIM, SPIM, FCS/FCCS, CLEM and 2photons microscopies, and also develops a new service of High Content Screening, with a specific emphasis on gene expression analysis by smFISH techniques. MRI organizes regular training sessions with theoretical presentations and practical sessions about advanced light microscopy and image analysis. Once trained, a user can freely access microscopes on a pay-per-use basis. For the screening facility, the access is evaluated on a project-by-project basis.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

MARS

MARS

Director: Marcelo Nollmann

Hôpital Arnaud-de-Villeneuve, Montpellier, France

MARS is a research facility born from a collaboration between R&D groups at the CBS, and the PIBS, MRI and IPAM facilities. The main objective of MARS is to offer the scientific community access to a selection of advanced microscopy technologies, generally not commercially available. To achieve this aim, we implement in MARS state-of-the-art optical microscopy methods developed by R&D teams of the FBI node (Nollmann, Margeat, Milhiet, Mollard). MARS offers access, training, and support to several custom-made optical setups.

R&D Teams

Three R&D teams are part of the MARS facility to port their methodological developments. The group of Emmanuel Margeat develops single molecule FRET and fluctuation microscopies to investigate the structure, dynamics, and interactions of macromolecular complexes, with a specific focus on membrane receptors and transcription regulation. The team of Marcelo Nollmann (see Group website) specializes in the development and implementation of super-resolution and advanced microscopy methods to investigate DNA organization and remodeling. Specifically, the team has developed two-color ultra-stable PALM/STORM microscope (currently available at MARS), a 3D-PALM setup based on adaptive optics, and multi-focal plane microscopy. The group is currently working as well in the combination of these methods with structured illumination microscopies. Together with the group of Pierre-Emmanuel Milhiet, the team has recently developed a combo PALM/STORM/Atomic Force Microscopy.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

IPAM

IPAM

Director: Chrystel Lafont and Pierre Fontanaud

Chrystel.lafont@igf.cnrs.fr and Pierre.Fontanaud@igf.cnrs.fr
Hôpital Arnaud-de-Villeneuve, Montpellier, France

IPAM is a platform for the investigation of small animals. IPAM platform is under ISO9001 certification (starting from June 2014) and a labeled IBiSA facility. IPAM is headed by P. Mollard (CNRS, IGF) and with help of C. Lafont (tech leader). IPAM-IGF is dedicated to cellular in vivo imaging techniques in both anesthetized and vigile animal models. Our latest development involves 2-photon cellular in vivo microscopy with long-range objectives (Mitutoyo, wd: 2cm, x20 magnification, NIR transmission) readily applicable to imaging of deep tissues structures (metabolic brain, pancreatic islets from animal models of diabetes) in anesthetized animal models. Access to IPAM-IGF equipment is based on project selection (http://www.ipam.cnrs.fr/), IPAM-IGF is also an international member of the National Biophotonics and Imaging Platform Ireland (NBIPI, http://www.nbipireland.ie/ ).

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

IMAG’IC (Institut Cochin photonic imaging facility)

IMAG’IC (Institut Cochin photonic imaging facility)

Director: Pierre Bourdoncle

u1016-imagic@inserm.fr
Institut Cochin, Rue Mechain, Paris, France

The Institut Cochin photonic imaging facility (IMAG’IC), which has the Gis IBiSA, France-BioImaging and ISO 9001 labels, is under the scientific direction of Florence Niedergang and under the responsibility of the engineer Pierre Bourdoucle.
In the center of Paris, the platform has 15 acquisition systems and 3 stations for analysis and image processing, spread over 130 m². Any person working in a public laboratory (EPST, University) or private company can benefit from help or training to become autonomous to work on all microscopes managed by the platform.
In parallel, image restoration by 3D deconvolution, image quantification, database,  3D printing, vibratome sectioning of thick tissues and tissue clarification are also now proposed to our users.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

PIBBS @CBS

PIBBS @CBS

Director: Christine Doucet

doucet@cbs.cnrs.fr
Centre de Biochimie Structurale, 29 Rue de Navacelles, 34090 Montpellier, France

PIBBS-Optics facility gathers state-of-the-art, custom built setups for various advanced microscopy techniques, such as Single Molecule Localization Microscopy, Multi-Focal Microscopy, smFRET, PIE-FCCS, 2-photons FCS, single particle tracking…

Located in the CBS (Centre de Biochimie Structurale, Montpellier), it offers access to advanced microscopies to the scientific community through local, national and international collaborations.

Users are assisted by dedicated research engineers and scientific coordinators to define the best approach, experimental design, help in data acquisition and analysis.

More details are available on our website:

http://www.cbs.cnrs.fr/index.php/fr/fluorescence

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

H2P2 (Histo pathology High precision)

H2P2 (Histo pathology High precision)

Director: Alain Fautrel, Nicolas Mouchet, Bruno Turlin and Marie-Dominique Galibert

H2P2@univ-rennes1.fr
2 Avenue du Professeur Léon Bernard, 35000 Rennes, France

The H2P2 platform performs histology work on human, animal and plant tissues. The facility is equipped with last generation devices to increase analysis reproducibility and ensure rapid automatic processing. We produce Tissues Micro Array (TMA) that can group hundreds of tissulars spots on a single microscope slide. We have developed a thorough expertise in immuno-labeling (more than 500 Ac in our catalog) as well as multiplex staining, a technique that can highlight up to 6 different proteins per slide, fluorescence or chromogenic. To visualize slides we offer several options: epifluorescence microscope, virtual slides from a Hamamatsu scanner with fluorescence and a new generation confocal scanner (3D-Histech) with seven channels in fluorescence.  This latter technology gives the opportunity to scan thick tissues (300µm) after clearing. Slides are analysed in 2D using Halo, an image analysis platform/software (with machine learning) for quantitative tissue analysis in digital pathology.  We perform 3D images routinely and advanced analysis reconstruction with Amira. We also developed extensive expertise in laser capture microdissection, allowing single cells capture. We are developing in situ molecular technologies, as Raman micro spectroscopy imaging on biological samples with statistical analysis of obtained spectra.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

MicroPICell (Tissue and cell imaging)

MicroPICell (Tissue and cell imaging)

Director: Perrine Paul-Gilloteaux, Emmanuel Scotet

perrine.paul-gilloteaux@univ-nantes.fr
8 Quai Moncousu, 44000 Nantes, France

MicroPICell is an imaging facility specialized in sample preparation (histology), cellular and tissular imaging (photonic microscopy) and data processing and analysis (bioimage analysis). The facility is located within the precinct of the Hotel Dieu hospital, Nantes University. The platform is affiliated to the Structure Federative de Recherche UMS INSERM 016/CNRS 3556/Nantes University and teamed up with Nikon Instrument society and the APEX veterinary facility to create the Center of Excellence Nikon Nantes in 2016. The MicroPICell facility offers a complete integrated cellular imaging service to all users after analysis of the feasibility of their projects. The applications range is then very large, for example cancer research and immunology, regenerative medicine or stem cells research. It is organized in 3 main services: histology, photonic microscopy, image data management and analysis, all these services working closely together on users projects.

+ Info ↗ Go to website
Site

MRIC (Microscopy Rennes Imaging Center)

MRIC (Microscopy Rennes Imaging Center)

Director: Marc Tramier, Claude Prigent

marc.tramier@univ-rennes1.fr
2 Avenue du Professeur Léon Bernard, 35000 Rennes, France

The platform provides regulated access to imaging systems, as well as scientific and technical assistance in the design of projects and experiments. Proposed techniques are: epifluorescence, video microscopy, confocal, spinning disk, multiphoton, lightsheet, TEM, cryo-electron microscopy, high pressure freezing, tomography, immuno-electron microscopy.
Backed by research teams, the platform also has a strong R&D activity dedicated to the design of prototype microscopes. Finally, MRic provides training to microscopy techniques.

+ Info ↗ Go to website