Directions:

The Facility is located in the Division of Experimental Oncology, Room 2322 of the east wing of the Cross Cancer Institute (Google Maps).

Once you are in the Cross Cancer Institute, pass the Reception desk in the lobby and turn to the right. Continue on the main floor level until you pass the escalators. You will see the Trendz Cafe on the left. Enter the hallway and make a right turn immediately after you pass the Trendz Cafe. Go through the long hallway until the end and make a left turn. You will find 2 elevators (not the service elevator). Take the elevator to the 2nd floor and pass the double doors on the right side of the elevator. The Facility is located at the end of the hallway.


Access:

The Cell Imaging Facility operates on availability and fee-per-service basis. Individuals may use the confocal/multi-photon microscopes either independently or with the assistance of staff. However, individuals must be trained before operating the microscopes without supervision.


Training:

We provide training sessions as required and usually in groups of 2 to 3 persons for cost saving purposes.

  1. Training sessions are held within 2 weeks of the request.
  2. The time frame between the training period and the beginning of the microscope session should be 2-3 weeks.
  3. To check on the instrumentation availability use the pull-down menu for access to individual instruments.
  4. The length of a training session is 2-3 hrs for light microscope and 2X3hrs sessions for TEM. You are required to come back within 2 weeks with your own samples for practice under our supervision. (Samples for the training session will be provided.)
  5. It is helpful for us to have some ideas about your applications prior to the training.

Booking:

Access to the equipment is prioritized. All onsite users have priority over offsite users. The offsite users with cross appointments will be given higher priority over those who have no academic affiliation with the Department of Oncology.

Equipment in the Cell Imaging Facility can be booked online 2 weeks in advance on a first-come first-serve basis. A user will receive an access login name and password after training. For Confocal microscope users, bookings by a single user are limited to no more than three hours per day, three sessions per week. Exceptions will be made in cases where experiments (i.e. live cell Imaging) require extra time, but only with the approval of the Facility Manager.

Usage by offsite users will be limited to 25% of the instrumentation time/week. Exceptions will be made at the discretion of the Facility Manager.

Important information about "No- Shows", Late Arrivals and Cancellations:

  • Users who do not show up for their sessions and who have no explanations will be charged for the whole period of their bookings.
  • Users who are late (i.e. do not arrive within half an hour of their scheduled time) will lose their time slots.
  • Cancellations must be received at least 24 hours in advance of their bookings to avoid charges.
    There will be a charge for one hour's usage IF the cancellation was made 24hrs in advance, the user was ill, or the experiment failed.

Overbooking:

The amount of booked time requested and actual usage will be closely monitored. If a consistent pattern of overbooking is observed, the lab/user will be notified and possibly charged for a percentage of their over-booked time.