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  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).

Microscopy systems available @PICsL

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.

Microscopy systems available @BIC