News

ULS Survey for 2019

The ULS survey for 2019 has commenced and all current ULS users and PIs would receive an email with details of the survey. Your participation is of great importance for the ULS to understand our strengths and shortcomings. All survey participants will enter into a lucky draw and a total of 20 winners will each receive 2 hours of free ULS equipment usage for their laboratories in May, 2020. Please complete the survey by 17 April and contact us if you have any queries.

Temporary suspension of face-to-face equipment training

In view of the current outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), the ULS will be temporarily suspending all face-to-face equipment training with immediate effect. While access to ULS equipment and technical support for current users are unaffected, all personnel are strictly required to properly wear a face mask at all times inside any ULS laboratory. The ULS will be closely monitoring the epidemic and will notify users when there are updates on the arrangement. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact our staff. Thank you for your attention.

Updates on the ULS Equipment Charging Scheme (2020)

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) will be updating our Equipment Charging Scheme with effect from 1 February, 2020. In the meantime, we are pleased to offer discounts to internal research groups with monthly usage exceeding HK$5000 (10% discount) or HK$10000 (20% discount). If you have any queries about our new charging scheme, please do not hesitate to contact our staff.

ULS Seminar - Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Nanoscopy

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is co-organising a seminar on Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Nanoscopy with Leica Microsystems, Inc. STED is a confocal-based super-resolution fluorescence microscopy technique that is known for its ease of use and minimal image artefacts. It delivers a lateral resolution of up to 50 nm. Please visit the Leica website for more information about the technology, and see below for details of the upcoming seminar: Date: 10th October, 2019 (Thursday) Time: 3:00 to 4:00 pm Venue: Y715, Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y) Speaker: Bob Tang, Applications Specialist, Leica Microsystems, Inc. Registration is not required for the seminar, but seating will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Please contact Dr Michael Yuen if you have any queries.

ULS Newsletter (Fall 2019)

The second issue of the ULS newsletter has been issued. Please follow the link to view it online. The ULS newsletter aims at introducing the latest technologies and innovations in life science, promoting new and existing equipment managed by the ULS, as well as encouraging users and principal investigators to connect with us. We welcome readers to give us comments and suggestions as we strive to make our contents timely, relevant and interesting. Thank you very much for your support.

ULS Equipment Upgrade - Nikon N-SIM/N-STORM/A1 Super-resolution/Confocal Microscope

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is pleased to announce a major upgrade of the Nikon N-SIM/N-STORM/A1 Super-resolution/Confocal Microscope. In addition to featuring two super-resolution techniques (i.e., SIM and STORM) in one single system, the system is now equipped with a confocal scan head for performing laser scanning confocal microscopy, thus enabling researchers to perform correlative confocal-super-resolution imaging. Please refer to the ULS webpage for further details of the equipment, as well as for a sample image acquired in-house. For any enquiries on the equipment and for arranging for a training, please contact Dr Michael Yuen.

New ULS Equipment - Countess II FL Automatic Cell Counting and Imaging System

The Countess II FL Automatic Cell Counting and Imaging System will be available for booking in mid-July. The new system is capable of acquiring bright-field and fluorescence images of cell suspensions; and by automatic analysis of the images, allow researchers to instantaneously obtain such information as the cell count, labelling of fluorescent probes, expression of fluorescent proteins and cell viability, etc. Two training sessions have been arranged and the details are as follows: - Date: 16th July, 2019 (Tuesday) - Time: 3:30 to 4:15 pm (session 1); 4:30 to 5:15 pm (session 2) - Venue: Y709, Lee Shau Kee Building If you would like to sign up for the training, please email Dr Michael Yuen and provide your name, department, contact number and preferred session. Registrants will receive a confirmation email no later than 10th July.

ULS Seminar - ProteinSimple Capillary Western Blotting System

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is hosting a seminar on the ProteinSimple Capillary Western Blotting System. The details are as follows: Date: 5th July, 2019 (Friday) Time: 11:00 to 12:00 Venue: Y716, Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y) Registration is not required for the seminar and demo, but seating will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Please contact Dr Michael Yuen if you have any queries.

New ULS Equipment - X-CLARITY Tissue Clearing System

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is pleased to announce that the Logos Biosystems X-CLARITY Tissue Clearing System is now available for booking. The new system comprises a polymerisation system for creating tissue-hydrogel hybrid constructs, and an electrophoretic tissue clearing system to remove lipids in the samples, making the latter largely transparent and thus suitable for 3-dimensional, deep-tissue imaging (e.g., using multiphoton or light sheet fluorescence microscopy). Please refer to Chung et al. (Nature 497, 332-337 (2013)) or the ULS webpage for further details of the technique, and contact Dr Michael Yuen for any enquiries on its applications and for arranging for a training.

Improve the Resolution and Contrast of your Confocal and Fluorescence Images by Image Deconvolution

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) has recently upgraded our Imaris 3/4D image visualisation and analysis software to the latest version. In addition to 3D volumetric rendering and 3D colocalisation analysis, the version 9.3 now features image deconvolution, a commonly used image processing technique to improve both the resolution and contrast of images. For more details, please refer to the Imaris website or to sample images acquired in-house by the ULS. Please contact Dr Michael Yuen if you have any queries or if you would like to arrange for a training. Thank you for your attention.