Molecular Imaging Facility

Director

Scott Butler, Ph.D.

Mission Statement

The Molecular Imaging Facility provides researchers at the University of Rochester with access to state of the art instruments capable of detecting and quantifying the levels and positions of radio- and fluorescently labeled molecules in a variety of formats including gels, blots and microtiter plates.

Core Services

The facility provides users with access to two instruments designed to facilitate the analysis of samples containing radioactive- and fluorescent-labeled biomolecules.  The virtue of the two systems is their sensitivity and digital storage, which allows easy quantitation and manipulation of images.

Instrumentation

Storm 820 Phosphorimager- Storage phosphorimaging allows extremely sensitive detection and digitized quantization of radiolabeled (32P, 14C, 35S, 125I and 3H) samples in gels, blots and microtiter plates.  The virtues of this technology include the elimination of the need for film, high sensitivity, linearity over 5 orders of magnitude and computerized analysis and storage of data. 

Fluorimager 575- The fluorimager provides single laser excitation (488 nM) and photomultiplier detection of fluorescently labeled molecules in gels, blots and microtiter plates.  The system is highly sensitive, accurate over several orders of magnitude and provides for computerized analysis and storage of data.

Users

There is no formal user group.  There are currently 41 Medical Center laboratories with permission to use this facility.