UC San Diego Launches Nikon Imaging Center

The Nikon Imaging Center, a collaborative microscopy center that provides local researchers with access to the latest imaging technologies, has opened at the University of California, San Diego.

“UC San Diego’s partnership with Nikon is very exciting because it will enrich both the scientific research capabilities and educational activities on campus,” said Samara Reck-Peterson, a professor at UC San Diego and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

A photomicrograph of a sagittal section of rat cerebellum, magnified 40 times, using both fluorescent and confocal microscopy. Produced by Thomas Deerinck at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at UC San Diego and first-place winner of the 2002 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. Courtesy of Thomas Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, UC San Diego.

The UC San Diego site is only the third in North America, following similar Nikon facilities at Harvard Medical School and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Globally, there are Nikon Imaging Centers at Oxford University in England, the Curie Institute in France, Heidelberg University in Germany, the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, and Hokkaido University in Japan.

Located in the Leichtag Family Foundation Biomedical Research Building on the School of Medicine campus at UC San Diego, the center will provide researchers with access to a wide array of latest-generation microscopic tools and technologies, including point-scanning and field-scanning confocal, high-content, total internal reflection fluorescence, and wide-field fluorescence microscopes.

“In addition to offering standard imaging techniques, the center has two microscopes that can image with what is called superresolution, which allows us to resolve structures with two to 10 times the precision that standard microscopes can achieve,” said Eric Griffis, director of the Nikon Imaging Center.

Nikon’s collaboration with UC San Diego includes more than $2.5 million in equipment and access to the newest product releases. Nikon will also work with UC San Diego to develop and enhance education efforts in imaging.