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Suggested duration: 3 to 10 days
Cost: $250/day per person
Pre-requisite: None
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The AOMF invites applicants from around the globe to participate in our International Microscopy Visitors Program (IMVP). The IMVP is a self-paced program combining hands-on training by our expert staff with ample individual practice time on our microscopes for a truly thorough microscopy learning experience. 

Each day will consist of 2hrs of hands-on microscope instruction time followed by 4hrs of unassisted microscope practise time. The program is designed for individuals or groups of no more than 4 participants (discounts for groups may apply).  The IMVP can be arranged anytime of the year subject to microscope and staff availability.

The duration of the course is flexible, depending on your microscopy experience and ambitions.  A 3-day program would be sufficient to gain a thorough working knowledge of confocal fluorescence microscopy, including:

• using widefield (visual) mode to find your specimen
• setting up lasers and detectors to suit your fluorescent labels
• optimizing your confocal image intensity (laser powers, detector parameters, pinholes)
• optimizing the number of pixels for publication-quality image sizes
• adding DIC transmitted-light images to see cell and nuclear boundaries
• creating confocal z-stacks and 3D projections

In a 5-day session we could preface the confocal training with the fundamentals of widefield microscopy, both transmitted-light and fluorescence, including such topics as:

• following the lightpath to identify key components
• transmitted-light contrasts (brightfield, DIC, Phase Contrast, and Darkfield)
• fluorescence microscopy contrast (filtersets, lamps)
• magnification, numerical aperture, and resolution
• optimizing the microscope components
• cameras and image acquisition
• multi-channel fluorescence microscopy acquisition (eg: DAPI, FITC, Cy3, Cy5)
• microscope care and maintenance

A longer visit could include such topics as:

• advanced confocal and two-photon microscopy (FRAP, FRET, intravital imaging, second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging
• live-cell microscopy
• spinning-disk confocal microscopy

Please contact AOMF if you’re interested and we’d be happy to discuss the program with you!