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Core Facility – NIC Nikon Imaging Center

The Nikon Imaging Center (NIC@Uni-Heidelberg) is a core facility for light microscopy at the University of Heidelberg, developed in partnership with Nikon GmbH, Geschäftsbereich Mikroskopie and Nikon Instruments Europe B.V. It is located centrally on Campus at BioQuant INF267 providing access and training in a wide variety of light microscopy techniques for the Life Sciences

representative/decorative image: on a black background 5 different examples of imaging are shown (from super resolution to other techniques), representing Cellbiology, Neurobiology, Virology and Tumor & Developmental Biology - the image is basically a collage of imaging results. On the bottom left is the NIC´s logo.

Project Request

Displays the Timeline for project requests at the NIC Facility. The steps include First Contact, Registration, Online Request, Project Discussion, Training, Image acqusition, and Further Supprort.

All researchers from Heidelberg University and the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim can get training and access to the NIC microscopes. Training is mandatory, after which researchers can use the equipment independently. The NIC staff is always available for advice and can help to improve image acquisition.

Fees per hour apply for microscope use, depending on type of instrumentation and user affiliation.

 

Services & Equipment

The Nikon Imaging Center offers a variety of microscopic systems, covering a wide range of applications.

Access to microscopes is given after training so that trained users can perform their experiments independently. Only the Light sheet Ultramicroscope and the 2-photon TrimScope have to be operated by NIC staff because of their complexity.

In addition to microscopes, the NIC has analysis workstations  (running Nis-Elements, FIJI) and a server running Huygens HRM for deconvolution.

Further Information on our Equipment

Team

Table

The woman smiling in the photo

Dr. Ulrike Engel
Head of Facility

ulrike.engel@bioquant.uni-heidelberg.de
Phone: +49 6221 54 5652

Room U05
BioQuant
INF 267
69120 Heidelberg

 

Portrait of a man with glasses

Dr. Christian Ackermann
Assistant / Training on most Set-Ups

christian.ackermann@bioquant.uni-heidelberg.de

Portrait of a man with glasses who is smiling

Dr. Nicolas Dross
2 Photon and Light Sheet Specialist / PPMS Contact Person

nicolas.dross@bioquant.uni-heidelberg.de

Selected publications

Table

Englert, D., E.M. Burger, F. Grun, M.S. Verma, J. Lackner, M. Lampe, B. Buhler, J. Schokolowski, G.U. Nienhaus, A. Jaschke, and M. Sunbul. 2023. Fast-exchanging spirocyclic rhodamine probes for aptamer-based super-resolution RNA imaging. Nat Commun. 14:3879. PMID: 37391423.
Garg, N., U.K. Stibler, B. Eismann, M. Mercker, B.G. Bergheim, A. Linn, P. Tuchscherer, U. Engel, S. Redl, A. Marciniak-Czochra, T.W. Holstein, M.W. Hess, and S. Ozbek. 2023. Non-muscle myosin II drives critical steps of nematocyst morphogenesis. iScience. 26:106291. PMID: 36936784.
Kubikova, J., G. Ubartaite, J. Metz, and M. Jeske. 2023. Structural basis for binding of Drosophila Smaug to the GPCR Smoothened and to the germline inducer Oskar. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 120:e2304385120. PMID: 37523566.
Ohara, S., M. Rannap, K.I. Tsutsui, A. Draguhn, A.V. Egorov, and M.P. Witter. 2023. Hippocampal-medial entorhinal circuit is differently organized along the dorsoventral axis in rodents. Cell Rep. 42:112001. PMID: 36680772.
Seidl, C., F. Da Silva, K. Zhang, K. Wohlgemuth, H. Omran, and C. Niehrs. 2023. Mucociliary Wnt signaling promotes cilia biogenesis and beating. Nat Commun. 14:1259. PMID: 36878953.
Comprehensive Overview of Publications

Funding Resources

Shows the funding received by the NIC Core Facility. These include the Excellence Cluster CellNetworks, Nikon and Wnt III

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