The platform is attached to ITI Neurostra. It is located at the Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégrées (INCI) and managed administratively by the CNRS UAR 3156 headed by P. Darbon.
The expertise of the in vitro imaging platform applies to the study of biological materials, tissues and isolated cells on a structural and ultrastructural scale. It extends to the immunocytochemical visualisation of molecules and the phenotypic detection of gene expression.
The platform is involved in a wide variety of interdisciplinary projects (biology, chemistry, agronomy, medicine). Around two-thirds of users come from the CNRS INCI UPR3212 (6 groups), with the remainder coming from other Strasbourg institutes (IBMC, IBMP, ISIS, IPHC, ECPM, CRBS, etc.).
A number of developments have taken place in recent years, including cryofixation (Wohlwend system) and super-resolution microscopy (Stellaris 8 confocal microscope with a STED module).

Microscopy systems available – Plateforme Imagerie In Vitro INCI

The PI2 imaging technical platform belongs to the UPR3572 research unit: I2CT (Immunology, Immunopathology and Therapeutic Chemistry) of the IBMC (Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology) in Strasbourg. The platform has i) sample preparation tools, ii) microscopy/imaging tools and iii) image processing and analysis tools. The platform offers workflows involving these 3 stages in order to answer the biological questions raised by scientists. The platform is part of the local RISEst network (Réseau d’Imagerie Strasbourg grand Est) and works in close collaboration with the other platforms in the network.

Microscopy systems available @PI2

PIC-STRA aims to support the 10 CRBS research units, as well as external teams from both the academic and private sectors. Opened in October 2020, this 350 m2 imaging platform provides users with around ten imaging systems (stereomicroscopes, wide-field and confocal single- and multiphoton microscopes with super-resolution module) for multi-scale observation, from whole small animals to sub-cellular details. It provides various solutions for the observation of fixed and living samples (videomicroscopy) and is equipped for image processing and analysis (IMARIS, Fiji/ImageJ, ICY, iLastik). The platform is part of the local RISEst network (Réseau d’Imagerie Strasbourg grand Est), is in the process of obtaining CORTECS and IBISA (STrasbourg Centre) accreditation and works closely with the other platforms in the network.

Microscopy systems available @PIC-STRA

The ISO 9001 certified platform consists of 2 systems:

  • Zeiss Axio Imager M2 LSM 800 confocal upright microscope with PI XY motorized piezo stage, 2 PMTs and an AiryScan super resolution module The excitation wavelengths available on the equipment are 405nm, 488nm, 561 nm, 640 nm. An OKOLAB incubation chamber maintains a stable temperature and CO2 level in the microscope for live image acquisition. This equipment allows the acquisition of topography information by reflection and fluorescence simultaneously.
  • Inverted confocal microscope Spinning disk CSU W1: The stand is an Eclipse Ti2-E Nikon equipped with a motorized XY stage and a piezzo Z-stage, the “Perfect Focus” focus maintenance system and a “water dispenser immersion”. The confocal spinning disk is the Yokogawa mono-camera SD CSU-W1 mono-disk (50µm), the Oxxus excitation laser source has 4 wavelengths 405-488-561-640 nm. The sCMOS Hamamatsu Orca Flash 4.0 camera complements this detection equipment as well as a thermostated and CO2 OKOLAB incubation chamber with different insert sizes. An off-line station allows the analysis of images with the software ZEN blue, NIS-AR, FiJi, ICY and Imaris and to manipulate large files. A reservation system has been also set up.

Microscopy systems available @IS2M

InMagiC (INMED iMAGing Center) is the microscopy platform of the Institute of Neurobiology of the Mediterranean: INMED in Marseille on the Luminy campus.
The platform is under the scientific direction of Rosa COSSART and under the responsibility of the engineer François MICHEL rosa.cossart@inserm.fr / francois.michel@inserm.fr

INMAGIC gathers in one place the multi-scale study tools necessary to study the development and the physio-pathological functioning of the central nervous system.
These tools cover the scales of observation from the whole animal (binocular loupes) to the dynamic morphology of neuronal contacts (synapses) thanks to widefield, confocal and multiphoton microscopes.
In addition, the platform provides a large number of training courses at all levels, both theoretical and practical, for all audiences (students, engineers, researchers, etc.).

The strong and original points of our structure are:

  • A space dedicated to the techniques of tissue clearing and the acquisition of these samples by an ultramicroscope (light sheet) in platform access, as well as the expertise of the engineer in charge (active member of the GT transparencies of the RTMFM);
  • The use of the multiphoton microscopy for the fast measurement (10-20 Hz) of the neuronal activity in vitro and in vivo on large populations of cells (up to more than 500 simultaneous cells).

Two high performance analysis stations are also available to all users. They include free and commercial software dedicated to analysis such as FIJI, ICY, IMARIS, Neurolucida360, Matlab…

Finally, the platform is a laureate of the PIA Equipex + 2020 and in this context the availability of tools beyond the state of the art in minimally invasive in vivo imaging will soon be open to the community.
These new tools will be commercial with industrial co-developments: a 3-photon excitation microscope, an ultra-fast AOD scanning microscope, a 2-photon endoscope or in academic development with the collaboration of the Fresnel Institute such as an ultra-thin endoscope and a deep recording station by photo-acoustics.

NeurImag is a service and R&D Cell and Tissue imaging core facility of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP, INSERM U1266 – Université de Paris) since October 2017.

It is divided in :

  • Imaging services using photonic microscopy,
  • Image analysis service providing « home made analysis solutions » through programming using either Icy, iLastik, ImageJ and/or MatLab.
  • Primary cell culture services that provide neuronal cells, organoïds and tissue to solve biological questions through live and super-resolution imaging.

To groundwork our scientific operation, the daily management is divided into three interconnected services (Sample preparation, Imagingand  Analysis) under the single management of a scientific director, Lydia Danglot (Inserm, “Chargée de Recherche Hors Classe”, Ph.D. in Neurosciences). Engineers performing technological operations are Sylvain Jeannin for Advanced Imaging, Philippe Bun for Data Analysis service,  Laurianne Beynac for in vivo functional imaging and David Boulet for the Sample preparation and Primary Cell Culture service.

NeurImag manages 9 light microscopy systems for (A) the observation of biological macromolecular structures (full field) with very high spatial (3 confocal, 1 Airyscan confocal,  1 super-resolution SIM and 1 3D-STED and STED-FCS) and temporal (spinning-disk, 2 photons imaging, Light-sheet imaging) resolution or high molecular localization precision (2 super-resolution microscope for PALM, SPT and 3DSTORM) correlated respectively with high speed Airyscan or swept-field confocal (SFC), (B) monitoring macromolecular dynamics and interaction within cells and/or living organism with minimal phototoxicity (full field, spinning-disk and fast Airyscan confocal) and (C) spectroscopy approaches for monitoring intracellular and molecular dynamics using light manipulation (spinning-disk with laser ablation and FRAP addons) and fluorescent lifetime decay measurements (fast-FLIM confocal) respectively. NeurImag also provides 3 workstations directly connected to microscope computers for image processing and data analysis using free- and commercial software such as ICY, ImageJ, Huygens, iLastik, Imaris, Neurolucida, Volocity, Zen Blue (Zeiss), SRX (Bruker) and MatLab.
The NeurImag cell and tissue culture services offers a unique service for biological sample preparation ranging from cells (primary culture of hippocampal/cortical neurons or glial cells, organoïdes, cells lines and tissues) with the optimization of immunofluorescence labeling or transfecting protocols to the management of human biological samples from the Pathology department of GHU-Paris/Sainte-Anne Medical Center, located on the same campus. The service is equipped with 6 biosafety level2-culture rooms including 15 Class II A2 biosafety cabinet, 18 CO2 incubators, 6 bench top centrifuge, 5 light microscope and one fluorescent microscope for a quick cell culture/transfection check. As an example, internal and external teams can buy weekly, plates of neurons seeded on glass coverslips to directly proceed for imaging or transfection. Light-sheet microscope is in L2 environment and can welcome human and IPS samples.
Since Neuroscience is a major research topic at IPNP, the NeurImag Imaging Facility addresses imaging techniques related to issues faced in this field. Imaging techniques currently available cover a wide range of spatiotemporal resolution, ranging from video-microscopy, super-resolution imaging (PALM, STORM, STED 3D and SIM), sample preparation and quantitative image analysis. If you wish to discuss about the potential and decisive contribution of imaging techniques to your research project, do not hesitate to contact us.

List of system and services available

  • Deconvolution widefield microscopy
  • Videomicroscopy and slide scanner system
  • Laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) + Gated detectors + White Light Laser
  • Spinning disc confocal system +Fast 2 colors GEMINI module
    Swept-field confocal system
  • Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF)
  • Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)
  • Fluorescence Cross-Correlation Spectroscopy (FCCS)
  • Fluorescence lifetime Imaging microscopy (FLIM)
  • Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)
  • Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP)
  • 2 photon in vivo imaging
  • Light sheet microscopy for live (organoids, Zebrafish) or fixed samples
  • Laser ablation and Photon uncaging
  • Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM)
  • Photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM)
  • STimulated Emission Depletion microscopy (STED) +/- Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy module
  • Stochastical Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) with 3D biplane module
  • Primary cell culture preparation + optimization on request/demand
  • Sample preparation (transfection, Immunostaining, 3D cultures)
  • Image Data Processing and Analysis +custom made solution
  • Workstations for data analysis (commercial softwares)

The imaging and Cytometry facility is part of Généthon, which is a pharmaceutical organization specialized in understanding rare diseases and designing new approaches of therapy, mostly gene transfer. The imaging and Cytometry facility offers services in imaging and cytometry, acquisition and analysis. The facility organizes its activity around 3 main missions: services, training, Research and Development.
The facility interacts with different partners:

  • inner departments of Genethon (5 R&D teams, vector production unit, technical development unit ; preclinical evaluation department)
  • Genethon belongs itself to a public interest group named Genopole, which gathers Start-up, companies, facilities, institutes and public laboratories, and promote their activity and research. Consequently, the facility has strong interaction with Genopole partners.

The facility is open to any user outside Genopole, and is currently working with the CEA, the institute of myology, the “Institut de Recherche Biomédial des armées (IRBA)” etc.

Scope of activity: The facility concentrates on quantitative imaging of muscles and neuromuscular disease.

Microscopy systems available @ImCy

The Morphoscope / Polytechnique BioImaging Facility received the IBiSA labelled in 2019. It is hosted and operated by the Laboratory for Optics & Biosciences (LOB) at Ecole Polytechnique, one of the founding members of the France BioImaging infrastructure. The Morphoscope facility results from a major equipment investment grant initiated in 2013 (Equipex Morphoscope2 project). It is based on the expertise of the LOB Advanced Microscopies group (9 tenured scientists, 1 tenured research engineer, 1 zootechnician, students, and access to LOB electronics & mechanics workshops). One important specificity of this platform is its emphasis on technology development and methodological innovation. In particular, the host team is a world leader in multiphoton microscopy of tissues, and the platform hosts both state-of-the- art commercial systems and lab-built systems based on cutting-edge technologies.
Imaging equipment is organized along three complementary needs:

  •  deep tissue imaging with multi-contrast nonlinear microscopy;
  • fast imaging of semi-transparent samples using light-sheet excitation microscopy;
  • super-resolution optical microscopy.

In addition, we have an expertise in large-volume bioimage informatics (e.g. managing & processing 3D images with >10^10 voxels)
We can provide the following:

  • Case study, expertise, and technological innovation in cell and tissue imaging.
  • Tissue imaging:
    • multicontrast multiphoton microscopy: 2PEF, SHG, THG, polarimetry, FLIM, CARS, multicolor 2-photon through wavelength mixing;
    • deep-tissue three-photon microscopy (Light Sci App 2018);
    • large volume multicolor microscopy of uncleared tissue ex vivo (ChroMS, multicolor 2P integrated with automated serial cutting, Nat Commun 2019);
  • Fast imaging:
    • standard and 2-photon light-sheet microscopy (Nat Methods 2014).
  • Super-resolved optical imaging:
    • TIRF-SIM microscopy.
Installed equipment:

Application-oriented setups (access through collaborations or reservation):

  • Multimodal/multicolor multiphoton microscope (2PEF, SHG, THG) – LaVision Biotec, Trimscope-II equipped with three femtosecond beams.
  • Super-resolution SIM / TIRF microscope – GE Healthcare, DeltaVision OMX SR.
  • Confocal microscope (FRAP, white light laser, resonant scanner) – Leica, TCS SP 8X.
  • Multi-view light-sheet microscope – Luxendo-Bruker, MuVi-SPIM.

Methodology-oriented setups (collaborative access):

  • Multimodal multiphoton microscope (2PEF, SHG, THG, FLIM, CARS, polar.) – Lab-built.
  • Multicolor 2PEF microscope (wavelength mixing, brainbow) – Lab-built.
  • 3-photon/THG microscope – Lab-built.
  • Two-photon light-sheet microscope – Lab-built.

Zebrafish facility. Capacity 6000 fish.
Secured image server with an OMERO installation (70 TB).
One GPU compute server with NVidia v100x3
Several image processing/analysis workstations, including 3 Imaris licences.

Microscopy systems available @Morphoscope

The Imaging and Cytometry Platform (PFIC) is one of the 9 scientific Platforms of the UMS AMMICa of Gustave Roussy, one of the first European comprehensive cancer center, located in the south of Paris.
Supporting basic and clinical research programs on cancer, the PFIC is a service, training and R&D center at the interface of basic, translational and clinical research.
The PFIC provides research and industry with an open center of expertise in multi-scale photonic imaging from molecular to tissue, and from animal models to the human. Run by 9 engineers from which 5 dedicated to imaging, the PFIC is organized into specialized units to offer expertise:

  • In confocal and multiphoton imaging together with the combined techniques TIRF, live SR, FRAP, FRET, photoconversion, for the study of dynamic interactions at high resolution.
  • In complex multidimensional dynamic imaging in living organs, 3D-organoid models, high resolution intravital imaging on small animal and whole animal imaging.
  • In transfer of photonics into the clinic (New contrast, NIR and confocal)
  • In flow, spectral and mass cytometry and high throughput cell sorting and cloning
  • Bioinformatics expertise for data processing and quantification

The PFIC is also strongly involved, with industrial partners, in innovative developments in new optical devices, new fluorescent probes and specific requests for clinical transfer of photon imaging.

Microscopy systems available @PFIC

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.