Standard Training Procedure at IMB
Onboarding
Upon commencing a position at IMB you will attend the building induction and gain both a UQ-SSO (uqjblogs) as well as an IMB-AD (j.blogs) account which is used to access different pieces of equipment and infrastructure around the building.
All microscopy facility equipment is managed via a third party booking software called PPMS and can be accessed by the link https://ppms.imb.uq.edu.au/login/?pf=2 using your IMB-AD credentials. To access PPMS you will need to be within the building or behind the UQ-VPN.
Using PPMS you can then submit a training request for equipment by completing the form (LINK). Please complete all questions as facility staff will triage which system is most suited to your needs (or located close by to you for your convenience). Also not every system is capable of performing every technique or illuminating every fluorophore (if there was such a system, we would have 20 of them!).
Before starting work in the microscopy facility, it is important to read the WebDB Microscopy Risk Assessment
Basic training
New users to the facility are required to attend training on a basic widefield system and gain ~10hrs experience or undergo an competency evaluation before gaining offpeak user rights (6pm – 8am). They may then request training on advanced systems such as confocal microscopes or live cell imaging systems.
Routine Widefield Microscopes
Common widefield systems used by researchers include:
Fluoro1 - Olympus BX51 upright fluorescence microscope
Fluoro2 - Zeiss AxioImage M2.m upright fluorescence microscope with Apotome
Fluoro4 - Nikon Ti-U Inverted fluorescence microscope
Brightfield/Darkfield - Olympus BX51 upright microscope
Advanced training
Once you have gained ~10 hours experience on the basic widefield systems, you are welcome to submit another training request for a more advanced system. Or contact microscopy facility staff using the group email (microscopes@imb.uq.edu.au) to arrange a meeting to discuss your particular needs (how big the object you want to image is, the resolution required, fluorescent channels, planned experiment details, etc).
Your hours experience will be checked and training for the relevant system book in. We usually request after the training, you contact facility staff to inform them when you make your first booking, so that they may be available to assist you if needed.
Outside of normal trainings, facility staff are always happy to help and assist you on the microscopes with any imaging methods or provide quick re-freshers if necessary. For example during your training you may have been shown how to perform Laser bleaching for FRAP but you may not have needed it right away and need a 10 minute reminder session.
Analysis training
You can also request assistance with analysis of your images with staff by completing the relevant request form on PPMS. This may result in specific tailored training on certain software packages, or working collaboratively on designing a custom image analysis pipeline or script. Facility staff can also help you create animations and 3D renderings of your data using commercial software packages.
Assistance with preparing publications
Facility staff are more than happy to help you with your publications by checking methods sections and figures that contain microscopy images, as well as ensuring the facility (and its funders) are properly acknowledged in the relevant sections. All publications that include data created through the use of equipment within the IMB ACRF Imaging Facility must credit the appropriate funding bodies:
https://imb.uq.edu.au/files/20659/ACRF_Acknowledgement.pdf
Lattice Lightsheet Microscope: ARC LIEF