Imaging & Photomanipulation - Collaboration and Release Policy

The major objectives of the Imaging and Photomanipulation Initiative are to advance the state of the art in imaging by developing photomanipulative and imaging modalities for studies of cell migration and developing caged phosphopeptides and phosphoproteins for probing phosphorylation events. These development studies are executed by individuals or small groups of investigators (the Development Team), from either inside or outside the Consortium. The fruits of the development studies will generally appear in an initial publication describing them and their use. The details of these new approaches or technologies will be released simultaneously to both the public and Consortium members outside the Development Team as early as possible, but no later than upon publication of the initial manuscript describing them. No one outside the Development Team will have access to these technologies prior to public distribution.

The detailed protocols and software developed by this Initiative will be made public, either on this website, in publication, or through a commercial source, once the manuscript describing them is accepted for publication. Some of these technologies require chemical reagents whose synthesis can be time consuming and expensive, and therefore we may not be able to distribute them to all interested parties. To facilitate their wider application in the community, we will publish and/or post on this website details protocols for preparing and using them; please feel free to contact us for assistance. Whenever distribution is expected to be a problem, we will attempt to transfer new technologies to companies to enable broader availability on reasonable terms. However some chemical reagents not may need to be synthesized by interested parties – contact us if we can help with this. When cDNAs are involved, they will become publicly available upon publication.

Please feel free to contact us about any of the technologies that we are using if you have any questions. In addition, if you have a problem that might require the development of a new imaging modality or if you have a new imaging modality looking for a biological problem please contact us.

The imaging facilities and expertise reside in multiple laboratories. The Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics at the University of Illinois has state of the art imaging modalities including FRET, FLIM, and FCS. It is configured as a national facility to provide a state-of-the-art laboratory for fluorescence measurements (spectroscopy and microscopy) with technical assistance to visiting scientists. The Jacobson lab has facilities for photoactivation, CALI (laser-based photoinactivation), TIRF, FRAP, and traction based force measurements. The Horwitz lab has facilities for ICM. The Imperiali lab develops the chemistry for the preparation of novel probes including caged phosphopeptides and phosphoproteins for photoactivation. If your research requires advanced imaging modalities and you think we might be of assistance, please contact us.