

Light Microscopy Facility (LiM) – iBiMED-UA
The Light Microscopy facility supports research on conventional and advanced light microscopy. It is equipped with various microscopes that are available to iBiMED and external researchers. The techniques used in a daily basis are: epifluorescence microsocopy, laser scanning confocal microscopy (optical sectioning, live cell imaging, F-techniques, spectral imaging and linear unmixing, super-resolution).
We also assist with image processing and data analysis. Main equipment: Zeiss LSM 880 confocal microscope, Zeiss LSM 510 Meta confocal microscope, Andor Spining Disk W1 microscope, EVOS 5000. The LiM Facility also comprises 1 flow cytometry unit.
Resources
Equipment:
- ZEISS AxioImager Z1
- ZEISS LSM 880 with Airyscan
- ZEISS LSM 510 META
- Olympus IX81
- Nikon eclipse Ti-U
- ZEISS AxioScope A1 (DIC)
Software:
- Huygens
- Imaris
- MatLab
- ZEISS ZEN
Offered Technologies
- Deconvolution Widefield Microscopy (DWM)
- Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy (LSCM/CLSM)
- Spinning disk confocal microscopy (SDCM)
- Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)
- Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP)
- Imaging Flow Cytometry
- High Performance Workstation
Publications
- Lentilhas-Graça J, Santos DJ, Afonso J, Monteiro A, Pinho AG, Mendes VM, Dias MS, Gomes ED, Lima R, Fernandes LS, Fernandes-Amorim F, Pereira IM, de Sousa N, Cibrão JR, Fernandes AM, Serra SC, Rocha LA, Campos J, Pinho TS, Monteiro S, Manadas B, Salgado AJ, Almeida RD, Silva NA. The secretome of macrophages has a differential impact on spinal cord injury recovery according to the polarization protocol. Front Immunol. 2024 Feb 20;15:1354479. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1354479. PMID: 38444856; PMCID: PMC10912310.
- Marques M, Ramos B, Albuquerque H, Pereira M, Ribeiro DR, Nunes A, Sarabando J, Brás D, Ferreira AR, Vitorino R, Amorim MJ, Silva AMS, Soares AR, Ribeiro D. Influenza A virus propagation requires the activation of the unfolded protein response and the accumulation of insoluble protein aggregates. iScience. 2024 Feb 2;27(3):109100. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109100. PMID: 38405606; PMCID: PMC10884513.
- Varland S, Silva RD, Kjosås I, Faustino A, Bogaert A, Billmann M, Boukhatmi H, Kellen B, Costanzo M, Drazic A, Osberg C, Chan K, Zhang X, Tong AHY, Andreazza S, Lee JJ, Nedyalkova L, Ušaj M, Whitworth AJ, Andrews BJ, Moffat J, Myers CL, Gevaert K, Boone C, Martinho RG, Arnesen T. N-terminal acetylation shields proteins from degradation and promotes age-dependent motility and longevity. Nat Commun. 2023 Oct 27;14(1):6774. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42342-y. PMID: 37891180; PMCID: PMC10611716.
- Monteiro FL, Góis A, Direito I, Melo T, Neves B, Alves MI, Batista I, Domingues MDR, Helguero LA. Inhibiting SETD7 methyl-transferase activity impairs differentiation, lipid metabolism and lactogenesis in mammary epithelial cells. FEBS Lett. 2023 Nov;597(21):2656-2671. doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14737. Epub 2023 Oct 3. PMID: 37723127.
- Alves-Vale C, Capela AM, Tavares-Marcos C, Domingues-Silva B, Pereira B, Santos F, Gomes CP, Espadas G, Vitorino R, Sabidó E, Borralho P, Nóbrega-Pereira S, Bernardes de Jesus B. Expression of NORAD correlates with breast cancer aggressiveness and protects breast cancer cells from chemotherapy. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2023 Aug 18;33:910-924. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2023.08.019. PMID: 37680988; PMCID: PMC10480464.
- Daniela M. da Silva, Nathalie Barroca, Susana C. Pinto, Ângela Semitela, Bárbara M. de Sousa, Patrícia A.D. Martins, Luís Nero, Iratxe Madarieta, Nerea García-Urkia, Francisco-Javier Fernández-San-Argimiro, Andrea Garcia-Lizarribar, Olatz Murua, Beatriz Olalde, Igor Bdikin, Sandra I. Vieira, Paula A.A.P. Marques, Decellularized extracellular matrix-based 3D nanofibrous scaffolds functionalized with polydopamine-reduced graphene oxide for neural tissue engineering. Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume 472, 2023.
- Carmo C, Coelho J, Silva RD, Tavares A, Boavida A, Gaetani P, Guilgur LG, Martinho RG, Oliveira RA. A dual-function SNF2 protein drives chromatid resolution and nascent transcripts removal in mitosis. EMBO Rep. 2023 Sep 6;24(9):e56463. doi: 10.15252/embr.202256463. Epub 2023 Jul 18. PMID: 37462213; PMCID: PMC10481674.
- Nascimento L, Fernandes C, Silva RM, Semitela Â, de Sousa BM, Marques PAAP, Vieira SI, Silva RF, Barroca N, Gonçalves G. Customizing 3D Structures of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes to Direct Neural Stem Cell Differentiation. Adv Healthc Mater. 2023 Oct;12(26):e2300828. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202300828. Epub 2023 Jun 27. PMID: 37312636.
- Vitória JJM, de Paula V, da Cruz E Silva OAB, Trigo D. Optimized Automated Analysis of Live Neuronal Mitochondria Homeostasis Modulation by Isoform-Specific Retinoic Acid Receptors. J Vis Exp. 2023 Jul 28;(197). doi: 10.3791/65452. PMID: 37578216.
- Nóbrega-Pereira S, Santos F, Oliveira Santos M, Serafim TL, Lopes AP, Coutinho D, Carvalho FS, Domingues RM, Domingues P, Bernardes de Jesus B, Morais VA, Dias S. Mitochondrial Metabolism Drives Low-density Lipoprotein-induced Breast Cancer Cell Migration. Cancer Res Commun. 2023 Apr 26;3(4):709-724. doi: 10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-22-0394. PMID: 37377750; PMCID: PMC10132314.
- Ferreira JRM, Alves M, Sousa B, Vieira SI, Silva AMS, Guieu S, Cunha Â, Nunes da Silva R. Curcumin-based molecular probes for fluorescence imaging of fungi. Org Biomol Chem. 2023 Feb 15;21(7):1531-1536. doi: 10.1039/d2ob01872a. PMID: 36722743.
Job Shadowing
- User Training
- Analyze New Fluorophores (development)
- Optical sectioning
- Super-resolution with airyscan detector