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Booking Policies

Who may book?
- Only trained users may book time on the instruments. Contact Miria Bartolini or Judy Cathcart for training on equipment at PMH and Feng Xu for equipment at TGH.
- Users are strictly forbidden to train each other!
- A user may require additional training sessions until sufficient working knowledge of the instrument is demonstrated.
- NEW! To avoid being billed twice for the same session, make sure that the user who books the microscope is the same person who logs into the computer. And if you use a microscope without booking it, you will pay for the time plus a 25% administrative fee.

Facility Hours
- AOMF staff members are generally available Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm.
- After-hours usage is permitted; but only internal users with card and/or key access can get into the facility on evenings and weekends. Contact AOMF staff for details.

Online Booking
- Use the Online Bookings Calendar to book time on those instruments for which you have been trained
- Users must book sessions and log onto computers with their own username
- In fairness to others you may not book more than 8 hours per week of Prime Time.
- Prime Time is defined as 9am-5pm on weekdays.
- After Hours is defined as 5pm to 9am the next day on weekdays and anytime on Saturdays and Sundays. After Hours usage will receive a 25% discount on all instruments. To receive the discount, you must make a separate entry in the booking calendar for the after hours portion of your usage and choose the new "After Hours" category from the drop-down list.
- NEW! Overnight is defined as sessions that begin after 2pm and last for at least 12 hours. Overnight sessions receive a 50% discount on the entire session, but you must remember to choose the "Overnight" category when booking to receive this discount. If the microscope is left unattended overnight, users must return before the end of their booked timeslot to remove their sample, save their data, and clean the microscope area as needed. For example, if you want to book the Yokogawa Spinning Disk Confocal for a 12-hr multi-location timelapse experiment, you could book a slot from 16:00 to 9:00 with the "Overnight" category: the first hour (16:00-17:00) is to setup the microscope, then the 12-hr experiment runs to 5:00 in the morning; you come in at 9:00 to save the data and remove your sample, finishing by 9:00.
- You cannot edit/delete your booking with less than 24hrs notice. If you cannot make it to your session, please contact the AOMF or see if another user wants to take your session instead.
- The minimum booking period is 30 minutes. Even if you need the instrument for only a short period of time, you still need to book the instrument!

NEW!Personal Health Information (PHI)
Users are forbidden from creating, storing, or copying PHI (i.e. clinical patient data) on AOMF computers. If you are working with clinical samples and are not sure whether PHI is being generated, please contact AOMF staff to discuss prior to imaging.

NEW!Data Management
- Data may be temporarily stored on the AOMF computers for up to a month, but only at your own risk!
- For UHN users, please note that you will not be able to map your network drives on these computers due to RIS's new encryption policies.
- The best way to transfer data from our computers is with a non-encrypted USB key or external hard drive.

Biosafety Policies

UHN Policy
- All users at the AOMF (including external users) must be familiar with and adhere to UHN’s “Research Policy and Procedure Manual”: http://intranet.uhn.ca/policies/toc/ResearchTOC.asp

Animal Use
- All users have to fill out a animal imaging approval form if planning to use live animals in the facility

Gloves
- Users are to wear gloves when using equipment in the In vivo imaging room.
- All other instruments are considered ‘clean’ so you cannot wear gloves when using them. If gloves are needed for handling specimens they must be removed before operating the instrument.

Biohazards
- No food or drink is allowed in the facility with the exception of the image analysis room.
- Any surfaces that have come into contact with specimens that present a biosafety concern must be wiped down with the 75% ethanol solution available in the facility, these surfaces include the instrument itself, the stage, the focus knob, buttons as well as the working areas around the instrument.
- All biohazardous waste must be promptly and properly disposed of in the clearly labeled Biohazardous Waste receptacle located in the facility.

Instrument Care
Who may operate our instruments?
- Only users trained by AOMF staff are permitted to operate our instruments.

Talk to us!
- If you are unsure or forget how to use the instrument or software, please ask for assistance: damage to the instrument (especially objectives) can easily occur.
- Please report any problems to us promptly.

Dry, Water & Oil Objectives
- Do not apply any medium to the objective unless you are absolutely sure it is the appropriate lens.
- There is only one oil lens and it is available upon request. After use, ensure that you properly clean this lens with lens cleaning solution and lens paper.
- The water objectives (confocal, two-photon) can be cleaned by placing a Kimwipe on the lens and allowing the water to soak into the tissue, DO NOT rub these lenses.

Lamps & Lasers
- Please allow 15 minutes of warm-up and cool down time for all lasers and lamps, this will increase the lifespan of equipment.
- Only turn on the lamps or lasers that you need, as they cost about $1/hour to operate.
- After your session, if the next user is waiting to use the microscope and will need the lamps and lasers, please leave them on for the user.