Skip to main content
Integrated Light Microscopy Core Facility

Integrated Light Microscopy Core Facility

    Abbott Memorial Hall
    5812 S. Ellis Ave.
    Room AB-129
    Chicago, IL 60637
    (Bindokas)

    Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery
    900 E. 57th St.
    Room 1250
    Chicago, IL 60637
    (Bond, Labno)

    Technical contact:
    Vytas Bindokas
    773-702-4875

    Our Mission

    The Microscopy Core was created in 1997 to serve the University of Chicago's research community. The facility was established to provide state-of-the-art microscopy imaging stations that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for individual laboratories to obtain on their own. Though we are not a service facility (i.e. we do not routinely perform experiments the users), we will provide assistance on the imaging aspects of the user's experiment. We have developed a strong and broad base of users and continue to train new users. Cancer Center and Digestive Disease members receive a discount via co-payments from their center grants.

    Technical Directors

    Vytas Bindokas, PhD; Facility Director and Technical Director, AB-129. Dr. Bindokas serves as full-time director of all Core operations and directs day-to-day operations at the Abbott 129 location. He has over 35 years experience (via four institutions) in light microscopy methods, specializing in physiologic measurements including ratiometric probes, FRET, confocal techniques and image analysis. He has been at the University of Chicago for over 20 years (Research track equivalent to Associate Professor) and has over 70 peer-reviewed publications.

    Shirley Bond, MA; Technical Director, Knapp Center Room 1250. Shirley serves as a Technical Director of the Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery site. She has over 30 years experience in light microscopy - over 18 years of which were spent at the University of Chicago. Earlier she served 11 years at the University of Illinois Medical Center where she was involved in research and in clinical immunopathology. Shirley also worked as a research microscopist for several years and trained under Anna Teetsov.

    Christine Labno, PhD; Technical Director, Knapp Center Room 1250. Dr. Labno received her PhD in 2005 at the University of Chicago Department of Pathology, specializing in immunostaining (including antibody generation) and cytoskeletal biology. She has worked in the Core for 10 years, gaining experience in confocal techniques, TIRF microscopy and superresolution microscopy. She has created a number of online tutorials for image processing with ImageJ, teaches the Facility's two ImageJ classes and leads a monthly ImageJ Macro Writing Workshop.

    http://digital.bsd.uchicago.edu/index.php