General rules
Always follow the instructions of our managers.
If you have ideas about new/improved techniques, improvements of the facilities, or complaints, please contact the manager.
Acknowledge us in publications
IIf you present data obtained with support of the UMIC (papers or presentations), please acknowledge the UMCG Microscopy and Imaging Center.
Include a sentence like: “Part of the work has been performed at the UMCG Imaging and Microscopy Center (UMIC), which is sponsored by NWO-grants 40-00506-98-9021(TissueFaxs) and 175-010-2009-023 (Zeiss 2p )”
We appreciate to receive a copy or reference of all publications for which the UMIC was used.
Admission and reservation
Individual training
Before you can work independently on any of the microscopes, you have to register as a user and follow an individual training for each instrument. Please contact the manager for an appointment. The training will be provided by assigned instructors. Training by other parties does not count!
After training the manager will provide you access to the facilities, to the reservation system and the corresponding locations;
Reservations
Reservations can be made up till 2 weeks ahead (up to 4 hours per workday for the SP8 and the SP8XDLS)
- Weekends, evening hours and holidays can also be reserved by experienced users;
- Reservations further ahead in time have to be discussed with the manager;
- Microscope service/repairs always has priority, but the managers take into account the user interest;
- If reservations need to be cancelled due to e.g. illness or failed experiments, you have to undo your reservation in Bookedsceduler, or ask the manager to do so.
- If you are 15 minutes or more too late without notification, your reservation can be cancelled by the manager.
Fees
- Users will be charged with an hourly fee for using a microscope
- Bills will be sent to your department on a quarterly basis. Only the actually used hours are charged, with the kind request to make realistic estimates of the reservation time you think you will need;
- No-shows may be charged the hourly fee;
- Also when you somehow used less- or more time than you booked, please change your time slot in Bookedsceduler. This helps other users and in the future we will use the booked times for fee calculations;
- It is not permitted to use any equipment without booking.
Pricelist
| |
tariff |
UMCG/RUG* |
| Microscope use (€/hr) |
| Electron Microscopy, Two-photon, Raman... |
500 |
50 |
| CLSM, DV, Thunder, Light sheet, LMD... |
200 |
20 |
| Incucyte (/plate) |
5 |
1 |
| Other fluorescence |
100 |
10 |
| Nanotomy /sample |
2000 |
200 |
| |
| EM preparation (€/sample) |
| Incl. SEM, Embedding, (cryo)ultramicrotomy, data storage, reagents. Except diamond knive |
250 |
50 |
| |
| Spatial Omics (€/day or part of the day) |
| Nanostring DSP, 10xGenomics Xenium |
2000 |
200 |
| |
| Operator (training, experiments; €/hr) |
250 |
50 |
| |
| *Matching included. Try to match the real costs when applying for funding of projects. |
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and METc
- Users have to indicate the use of GMOs. The number(s) of their GMO permit(s) should be known by the manager or have to be registered in Bookedsceduler. The rooms of the leica SP8x, CD7, LS7, zeiss780 and Stellaris are ML1. GMOs are not allowed in other areas;
- Also METc numbers if applicable have to be registered in Bookedsceduler
- Users have to obey the regulations for ML-1 activities.
Computers and data
All users are responsible for the data they produce, data is not back upped! Users are not allowed to install software on any of the computers on the center without permission of the managers. The primary purpose of our computers is image processing!
- Data has to be stored in the USERS folder (usually on the D: drive). Unindentified data in other directories will be deleted;
- Data can be stored external hard drives or USB sticks, to be provided by the users themselves;
- Data can be stored temporarily on the network drive of the Imaging Centre, ask one of the managers for an account;
- Data can also be stored on-line using Omero
- It is also possible to hire space on the network drive for prolonged storage of data.
Rules for using the incucytes
- The Incucyte S3 may only be used by trained (training by experienced users is valid) and registered users.
- Time-lapse intervals must be a multiple of half an hour, 30, 60, 90, 120 minutes etc is allowed.
- Booking in the UMIC-Booked Scheduler agenda is required for every plate separately.
- Any plates inside an IncuCyte on a position not booked in Booked Scheduler can be removed from the Incucyte and the time schedule without notice
- The two plate positions in the back tray of the S3A are reserved for members of the Coppes and Giepmans groups only.
- Any plate inside the IncuCyte or stove not marked with a name (of the owner) and a date will be removed by the manager and trashed
- From January 1, 2023, we charge €1,- per plate per hour
Responsible use of equipment
- Training provides you with the basic knowledge to operate a microscope. Always follow the instructions you were taught during training. In case of malfunctioning please contact the manager.
- Each microscope has a start-up / shut-down / stand-by instruction lying next to the microscope. Please read this instruction and follow its steps.
- Pay attention to the use of immersion liquids such as oil. Not all objectives can be used with oil-immersion. In order to avoid complete condensors or objective revolvers bathing in oil, please be careful with using oil immersion and clean the spills immediately. A 63x lens at the LeicaSP8x and one at the Zeiss780 is a glycerol lens and should not be used with oil.
- Oil spills can be cleaned using 70% ethanol on a lenspaper. Please note that the oil itself is known/suspected to be toxic, another reason to clean oil spills immediately. Do not! clean the lens itself with tissues, use special lenspaper for this or ask the manager.
Contact
Mail for questions and assistance regarding the microscopes and the software. Or just ask one of the managers.
