Imaging Core Facility Biozentrum Basel

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General Information

Imaging Core Facility (IMCF)
Biozentrum University of Basel

Klingelbergstraße 50 / 70
4056 Basel
Switzerland

How to get there

By train

From the Basel SBB (Swiss) and SNCF (French) train station: Take a No. 30 bus to the Kinderspital UKBB (children’s hospital) stop and cross the road to the Biozentrum From the Badischer Bahnhof (German) train station: Take a No. 30 bus to the Kinderspital UKBB (children’s hospital) stop, and then walk to the Biozentrum – see Google Maps.

By car

From Switzerland: Leave the expressway in the direction of Unispital, drive through the tunnel and then across the viaduct. Keep on the main road, passing Spalentor, and carry straight on over the traffic lights. Turn left after about 500 m. The Biozentrum is then on the right-hand side. From France: After passing the customs post, drive towards Basel-Kannenfeld as indicated. Stay on the main road (direction city), go straight on around the roundabout (direction city) and, after about 500 m, take the left-hand lane at Kannenfeldplatz. After only a few meters, take the right-hand lane and turn into Metzerstrasse. The Biozentrum is then about 300 m ahead. From Germany: Leave the expressway at exit Basel-St. Johann. After the tunnel, carry straight on for about 150 m. Turn left into Elsässerstrasse (direction city) and then, after 550 m, right onto St. Johanns-Ring (direction Augenspital). 300 m farther on, turn left into Klingelbergstrasse. The Biozentrum is then on the left-hand side.

By airplane

Take the airport bus (No. 50) to the Kannenfeldplatz stop, where you have to change onto a No. 31, 36 or 38 bus going in the direction of Schifflände/Habermatten or Wyhlen Siedlung. Get off at the next stop, Metzerstrasse, and cross the road to the Biozentrum.

Light microscopy is currently experiencing a renaissance. A wide range of highly sophisticated light microscopes allows various insights into a living organism. The Imaging Core Facility provides researchers with technical support for imaging procedures and data analysis.

Imaging procedures are becoming increasingly important in all fields of biological research. The center for light microscopy, the Imaging Core Facility, offers a technology platform for the use of highly developed light microscopes. Our services range from initial advice in selecting the right microscope for the experiment and setting up the specific system, up to the final analysis of the image data. Our aim is to support research groups in their work, with the latest microscopy techniques and software solutions.

Resurgence of light microscopy

Light microscopy has been developing rapidly since the beginning of the century: Green fluorescent protein (GFP), introduced more than ten years ago as a fluorescent protein marker, can be used with the light microscope to track directly the spatial and temporal distribution of proteins in living cells, tissues and organs. The enormous advances in computer technology allow us to analyze ever greater quantities of data and to automate the imaging. Today’s microscopes include highly complex programming and in many respects they are similar to robots. In recent years, super resolution microscopes have been used to examine areas which were previously only accessible to the electron microscope. Doubling the resolution means that even the smallest cell structures can be seen “live” with the light microscope.