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Bioimaging Unit

The Bioimaging Unit provides an invaluable microscopy service for high resolution light microscopy and electrophysiology. 

Our technical services provide conventional imaging techniques, whole slide scanning, super-resolution confocal laser scanning microscopy as well as functional imaging. 

The core staff, services and facilities serve a wide user base from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, the wider university, other universities, research institutes and industry - anyone with a need for high quality and high-resolution microscopy.

Available services

We have a wide range of microscope systems that offer advanced imaging capabilities.

Imaging

  • Conventional brightfield microscopy
  • Phase Contrast / DIC microscopy
  • Widefield Fluorescence microscopy
  • Confocal-microscopy including two-photon microscopy 
  • Super resolution microscopy (STED, iSIM, Airyscan)
  • Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)
  • High-content widefield screening and Slidescanning

This allows us to cover a wide range of imaging techniques:

  • Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP)
  • Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)
  • time lapse (live-cell)
  • volume (z-stack) imaging

Functional Imaging

FLAME (Functional and Light-Activatable Multi-dimensional Electrophysiology) Facility 

  • Multi-Electrode Array
  • Calcium Imaging
  • Optogenetics
  • Patch-clamp

Imaging Modalities

FLAME facility

The BioImaging Unit provides access, training and support for widefield, confocal and high-content live cell imaging.

We give support throughout your imaging project from experiment design through to image acquisition, processing and data analysis. We encourage new users to discuss their microscopy projects with us before initiating work. This allows us to advise on experiment design, sample preparation and to discuss the various imaging options. Once we have agreed on the best system/s to use we provide full and ongoing user training. This ensures that all our users can use the systems independently and to their full potential.

Services and support

Locations / Equipment

External access

Although primarily focused on supporting research at Newcastle University, we provide access to all our microscope systems and slide scanning services to users from any academic institution and industry. Please contact our Facility for further details if you are interested in accessing the Bioimaging unit. E-mail: bioimaging@ncl.ac.uk.

Locations

The Bioimaging Unit is spread over five different sites throughout the Campus to provide support for all users. The Central Unit for Bioimaging is located in the Medical School.

Bookings

To gain access to our booking system, you will need to register for an account. Once registered, you will only be able to view the online calendars of the systems that you have been trained on. The ppms user guide will take you through the registration process and the use of the booking system. Please contact us or complete the training request form within the system to discuss your training requirements.

Make a booking
Staff
Publications

We are an essential resource that contributes to numerous high impact publications every year. Here are some of the recent highlights.

1. Bassier Zadran B., Praveen Dhondurao Sudhindar, Daniel Wainwright, Yvonne Bury, Saimir Luli, Rachel Howarth, Misti Vanette McCain, Robyn Watson, Hannah Huet, Fanni Palinkas, Rolando Berlinguer-Palmini, John Casement,   Derek A. Mann, Fiona Oakley, John Lunec, Helen Reeves, Geoffrey J. Faulkner & Ruchi Shukla. Impact of retrotransposon protein L1 ORF1p expression on oncogenic pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma: the role of cytoplasmic PIN1 upregulation. Br J Cancer. 2023 Mar;128(7):1236-1248. doi: 10.1038/s41416-023-02154-9.

2. Valeria Chichagova, Maria Georgiou, Madeleine Carter, Birthe Dorgau, Gerrit Hilgen, Joseph Collin, Rachel Queen, Git Chung, Jila Ajeian, Marina Moya-Molina, Stefan Kustermann, Francois Pognan, Philip Hewitt, Michael Schmitt, Evelyne Sernagor, Lyle Armstrong, Majlinda Lako. Incorporating microglia-like cells in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal organoids. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. 2023 Feb; 27(3):435-445. doi.org/10.1111/jcmm.17670

3. Jean de Montigny, Evelyne Sernagor and Roman Bauer. Retinal self-organization: a model of retinal ganglion cells and starburst amacrine cells mosaic formation. Open Biology April 2023 doi.org/10.1098/rsob.220217

4. Alina Goldberg-Cavalleri, Nawaporn Onkokesung, Sara Franco-Ortega and Robert Edwards. ABC transporters linked to multiple herbicide resistance in blackgrass (Alopecurus myosuroides). Front. Plant Sci., 17 March 2023 Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress, Volume 14 - 2023 doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1082761.

5. Olivia A. Lambourne, Shane Bell, Léa P. Wilhelm, Erika B. Yarbrough, Gabriel G. Holly, Oliver M. Russell, Arwa M. Alghamdi, Azeza M. Fdel, Carmine Varricchio, Emma L. Lane, Ian G. Ganley, Arwyn T. Jones, Matthew S. Goldberg, and Youcef Mehellou*. PINK1-Dependent Mitophagy Inhibits Elevated Ubiquitin Phosphorylation Caused by Mitochondrial Damage. J. Med. Chem. 2023, 66, 11, 7645–7656, May 29, 2023 doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c00555. 

6. Santu Saha, Rachel Howarth, Sweta Sharma-Saha, Charles Kelly. Bioengineering of a tumour-stroma 3D-tumouroid co-culture model of hypopharyngeal cancer. Biol Open (2023) 12 (5): bio059949. doi.org/10.1242/bio.059949.

7. Christin A. Albus, Rolando Berlinguer-Palmini, Zofia M. Chrzanowska-Lightowlers & Robert N. Lightowlers. Four-Color STED Super-Resolution RNA Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization and Immunocytochemistry to Visualize Mitochondrial mRNAs in Context with Mitochondrial Ribosomes. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2661. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3171-3_17.

8. Parmveer Singh, Nadia A. Lanman, Hannah L. R. Kendall, Laura Wilson, Ryan Long, Omar E. Franco, Adriana Buskin, Colin G. Miles, Simon W. Hayward, Rakesh Heer, Craig N. Robson. Human prostate organoid generation and the identification of prostate development drivers using inductive rodent tissues. Development (2023) 150 (13): dev201328. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.201328.

9. Marcin Kotlarz, Priscila Melo, Ana Marina Ferreira, Piergiorgio Gentile, Kenneth Dalgarno. Cell seeding via bioprinted hydrogels supports cell migration into porous apatite-wollastonite bioceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Biomater Adv. 2023 Oct:153:213532. doi: 10.1016/j.bioadv.2023.213532. Epub 2023 Jun 21. 

10. Rodrigo Cerna-Chavez, Agata Rozanska, Giulia Lodovica Poretti, Nissim Benvenisty, Manoj Parulekar, Majlinda Lako. Retinal pigment epithelium exhibits gene expression and phagocytic activity alterations when exposed to retinoblastoma chemotherapeutics. Exp Eye Res. 2023 Aug:233:109542. doi:10.1016/j.exer.2023.109542. Epub 2023 Jun 17.

11. Samuel G V Charlton, Amber N Bible, Eleonora Secchi, Jennifer L Morrell-Falvey, Scott T Retterer, Thomas P Curtis, Jinju Chen, Saikat Jana. Microstructural and Rheological Transitions in Bacterial Biofilms. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023 Sep;10(27):e2207373. doi: 10.1002/advs.202207373. Epub 2023 Jul 31.

12. Valeria Di Leo, Conor Lawless, Marie-Pier Roussel, Tiago B Gomes, Gráinne S Gorman, Oliver M Russell, Helen A L Tuppen, Elise Duchesne, Amy E Vincent. Resistance Exercise Training Rescues Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Skeletal Muscle of Patients with Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2023;10(6):1111-1126. doi: 10.3233/JND-230099.

13. Chun Chen, David McDonald, Alasdair Blain, Emily Mossman, Kiera Atkin, Michael F Marusich, Roderick Capaldi, Laura Bone, Anna Smith, Andrew Filby, Daniel Erskine, Oliver Russell, Gavin Hudson, Amy E Vincent, Amy K Reeve. Parkinson's disease neurons exhibit alterations in mitochondrial quality control proteins. NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2023 Aug 8;9(1):120. doi: 10.1038/s41531-023-00564-3.

14. Bethany Hunter, Ioana Nicorescu, Emma Foster, David McDonald, Gillian Hulme, Andrew Fuller, Amanda Thomson, Thibaut Goldsborough, Catharien M U Hilkens, Joaquim Majo, Luke Milross, Andrew Fisher, Peter Bankhead, John Wills, Paul Rees, Andrew Filby, George Merces. OPTIMAL: An OPTimized Imaging Mass cytometry AnaLysis framework for benchmarking segmentation and data exploration. Cytometry A. 2023 Sep 26. doi: 10.1002/cyto.a.24803. Online ahead of print.

15. Christopher J Derrick, Emmanuelle Szenker-Ravi, Adrian Santos-Ledo, Ahlam Alqahtani, Amirah Yusof, Lorraine Eley, Alistair H L Coleman, Sumanty Tohari, Alvin Yu-Jin Ng, Byrappa Venkatesh, Essa Alharby, Luke Mansard, Marie-Noelle Bonnet-Dupeyron, Anne-Francoise Roux, Christel Vaché, Joëlle Roume, Patrice Bouvagnet, Naif A M Almontashiri, Deborah J Henderson, Bruno Reversade, Bill Chaudhry. Functional analysis of germline VANGL2 variants using rescue assays of vangl2 knockout zebrafish. Hum Mol Genet. 2023 Oct 10:ddad171. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddad171. Online ahead of print.

16. Livia Delpiano, Lisa W Rodenburg, Matthew Burke, Glyn Nelson, Gimano D Amatngalim, Jeffrey M Beekman, Michael A Gray. Dynamic regulation of airway surface liquid pH by TMEM16A and SLC26A4 in cystic fibrosis nasal epithelia with rare mutations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Nov 21;120(47):e2307551120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2307551120. Epub 2023 Nov 15.

17. Lucy M V Gee, Ben Barron-Millar, Jack Leslie, Claire Richardson, Marco Y W Zaki, Saimir Luli, Rachel A Burgoyne, Rainie I T Cameron, Graham R Smith, John G Brain, Barbara Innes, Laura Jopson, Jessica K Dyson, Katherine R C McKay, Alexandros Pechlivanis, Elaine Holmes, Rolando Berlinguer-Palmini, Stella Victorell, George F Mells, Richard N Sandford, Jeremy Palmer, John A Kirby, Christos Kiourtis, Joao Mokochinski, Zoe Hall, Thomas G Bird, Lee A Borthwick, Christopher M Morris, Peter S Hanson, Diana Jurk, Elizabeth A Stoll, Fiona E N LeBeau, David E J Jones, Fiona Oakley. Anti-Cholestatic Therapy with Obeticholic Acid Improves Short-Term Memory in Bile Duct-Ligated Mice. Am J Pathol. 2023 Jan;193(1):11-26. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2022.09.005. Epub 2022 Oct 13.

18. Gee LMV, Barron-Millar B, Leslie J, Richardson C, Zaki MYW, Luli S, Burgoyne RA, Cameron RIT, Smith GR, Brain JG, Innes B, Jopson L, Dyson JK, McKay KRC, Pechlivanis A, Holmes E, Berlinguer-Palmini R, Victorelli S, Mells GF, Sandford RN, Palmer J, Kirby JA, Kiourtis C, Mokochinski J, Hall Z, Bird TG, Borthwick LA, Morris CM, Hanson PS, Jurk D, Stoll EA, LeBeau FEN, Jones DEJ, Oakley F. Anti-Cholestatic Therapy with Obeticholic Acid Improves Short-Term Memory in Bile Duct-Ligated Mice. Am J Pathol. 2023 Jan;193(1):11-26. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2022.09.005. Epub 2022 Oct 13.PMID: 36243043

19. Faye McLeod, Anna Dimtsi, Amy C Marshall, David Lewis-Smith, Rhys Thomas, Gavin J Clowry, Andrew J Trevelyan. Altered synaptic connectivity in an in vitro human model of STXBP1 encephalopathy. Brain. 2023 Mar 1;146(3):850-857. doi: 10.1093/brain/awac396. PMID: 36315647 PMCID: PMC9976961

20. Tetsushi Kataura, Elsje G Otten, Yoana Rabanal-Ruiz, Elias Adriaenssens, Francesca Urselli, Filippo Scialo, Lanyu Fan, Graham R Smith, William M Dawson, Xingxiang Chen, Wyatt W Yue, Agnieszka K Bronowska, Bernadette Carroll, Sascha Martens, Michael Lazarou, Viktor I Korolchuk. NDP52 acts as a redox sensor in PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy. EMBO J. 2023 Mar 1;42(5):e111372. doi: 10.15252/embj.2022111372. Epub 2022 Dec 14.

21. B Zaaimi, M Turnbull, A Hazra, Y Wang, C Gandara, F McLeod, E E McDermott, E Escobedo-Cousin, A Shah Idil, R G Bailey, S Tardio, A Patel, N Ponon, J Gausden, D Walsh, F Hutchings, M Kaiser, M O Cunningham, G J Clowry, F E N LeBeau, T G Constandinou, S N Baker, N Donaldson, P Degenaar, A O'Neill, A J Trevelyan, A Jackson. Closed-loop optogenetic control of the dynamics of neural activity in non-human primates. Nat Biomed Eng. 2023 Apr;7(4):559-575. doi: 10.1038/s41551-022-00945-8. Epub 2022 Oct 20.

22. Mihael Vucur, Ahmed Ghallab, Anne T Schneider, Arlind Adili, Mingbo Chen, Mirco Castoldi, Michael T Singer, Veronika Büttner, Leonie S Keysberg, Lena Küsgens, Marlene Kohlhepp, Boris Görg, Suchira Gallage, Jose Efren Barragan Avila, Kristian Unger, Claus Kordes, Anne-Laure Leblond, Wiebke Albrecht, Sven H Loosen, Carolin Lohr et al. Sublethal necroptosis signaling promotes inflammation and liver cancer. Immunity. 2023 Jul 11;56(7):1578-1595.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.05.017. Epub 2023 Jun 16.

23. Elizaveta A Olkhova, Carla Bradshaw, Alasdair Blain, Debora Alvim, Doug M Turnbull, Fiona E N LeBeau, Yi Shiau Ng, Gráinne S Gorman, Nichola Z Lax. A novel mouse model of mitochondrial disease exhibits juvenile-onset severe neurological impairment due to parvalbumin cell mitochondrial dysfunction. Commun Biol. 2023 Oct 23;6(1):1078. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05238-7.

24. Enrico Pracucci, Robert T Graham, Laura Alberio, Gabriele Nardi , Olga Cozzolino, Vinoshene Pillai, Giacomo Pasquini, Luciano Saieva, Darren Walsh, Silvia Landi, Jinwei Zhang, Andrew J Trevelyan, Gian-Michele Ratto. Daily rhythm in cortical chloride homeostasis underpins functional changes in visual cortex excitability. Nat Commun. 2023 Nov 4;14(1):7108. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42711-7.

25. Rachel Queen, Moira Crosier, Lorraine Eley, Janet Kerwin, Jasmin E Turner, Jianshi Yu, Ahlam Alqahtani, Tamilvendhan Dhanaseelan, Lynne Overman, Hannah Soetjoadi, Richard Baldock, Jonathan Coxhead, Veronika Boczonadi, Alex Laude, Simon J Cockell, Maureen A Kane, Steven Lisgo, Deborah J Henderson. Spatial transcriptomics reveals novel genes during the remodelling of the embryonic human arterial valves. PLoS Genet. 2023 Nov 27;19(11):e1010777. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010777. eCollection 2023 Nov.

26. Oliver Podmanicky, Fei Gao, Benjamin Munro, Matthew J Jennings, Veronika Boczonadi, Denisa Hathazi, Juliane S Mueller, Rita Horvath. Mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases trigger unique compensatory mechanisms in neurons. Hum Mol Genet. 2023 Nov 17:ddad196. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddad196.

Contact us

Please feel free to contact us to discuss your imaging requirements.

E-mail:bioimaging@ncl.ac.uk

Address

Bio-Imaging Unit
William Leech Building
Second Floor, Room M2.154
The Medical School
Framlington Place
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE2 4HH
UK

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