Checklist for introducing new users to the MTZ Imaging facility

First Contact

• Send email to lichtmikroskopie.mtz(at)tu-dresden.de or contact the MTZ-Imaging by Phone +49 351 458 16426
• Give some information about your project and sample
  • What is the sample? (Organism? Tissue? Cell Type? Living? Fixed?)
  • How is it prepared? (Grown on glass? Tissue section? Living ?)
  • How is it mounted? Under a (proper exactly 0.17 mm) coverglass? Underwater in an agarose well? special chamber?
  • What Staining / Dyes / contrast agents will you use? (Fluorescence and/or transmitted light?)
  • What special information do you want to get out of your sample (Do you need 2D or 3D images (z stacks)?; Do you need time series? If so, what time resolution / frames per seconds do you need? What is the size of the field of view that you need?; How big are the objects you are interested in?)

• MTZ-Imagigng will arrange a personal meeting for your first introduction and recommend which system fits well for your experiments: Leica SP 5 or Zeiss 510

Introductions

First Introduction

Without your own sample

Estimated time: usually around 2hours

• Introduction to hardware: how to switch on/off.
• Introduction to software: how to properly acquire an image, z-stack, time series (it might sometimes not be possible to cover all of that in the 1st intro).
• Data handling: explain about original file formats and metadata; advantages/disadvantages of storing data on either hard drive or fileserver
• Data safety: Point out that the MTZ-Imaging holds no responsibility for data whatsoever!

Important: in order to keep the disk free for imaging - data older than 2 month can be deleted on an irregular basis without warning.

• Safety regulations: laser safety, S1 safety, correct use of wastebins.
• How to clean objectives.

Second Introduction

With own sample!!!

Estimated time: project dependent, usually around 3 hours to give some time for working alone on the system

• Recap contents of first intro
• Introduce user to things that couldn't be covered in the first session
• Help user to set up the system for their own imaging experiment.
• Stay with user until he/she feels save to use the system independently.
• Invite user to contact the MTZ-Imaging about questions / problems / changes in their imaging projects at any time.
• Administrative isues (MTZ-Imaging website, Scheduling Database, Mailing List, access to the room, payment and billing)