Laboratory of Receptor Biology and Gene Expression

Misson

    Welcome to NCI Optical Microscopy Core (NIH/CCR/LRBGE). OMC is a shared resource open to everyone within the NCI, and we also welcome collaborations with investigators from other NIH institutes. OMC specializes on intracellular molecular mapping (micro-compartmentalization of macromolecules) and biophysical quantification of the intracellular dynamics for the macromolecules involved in fundamental processes such as transcription, translation, membrane transport. These cutting-edge methods provide new information on the mechanisms of the intracellular regulation and are indispensable for modern and future research of NIH.

Expertise

     OMC provides to the whole CCR/NCI/NIH unique or rare instrumentation, such as custom-built HILO instruments, available only in OMC, or MINFLUX, which is the only instrument of such kind at NCI and one of the two such instruments in Eastern part of USA. We maintain, adapt and develop cutting-edge analysis of the molecular mapping and tracking. We deliver support for these highly sophisticated methods for the PI with different levels of biophysical knowledge and thus facilitate access to these methods for the whole NCI community. A highly competent staff of OMC with training in biophysics, physics, engineering and cell biology, offers technical support, and, if requested, a full-scale collaboration. We provide expert guidance and troubleshooting in the design of experiments, their execution, interpretation and publication. In addition, we provide support in conventional microscopy techniques, from the multi-channel fluorescence imaging of fixed cells and tissue sections to FRET by acceptor photobleaching, to the time lapse imaging of cells in 2D or 3D, and computational removal of out-of-focus light (deconvolution).