Mar 19

Zeiss Confocal Microscope not available

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As we have warned for the past two months, the Zeiss LSM 780 confocal microscope is now not available anymore until it returns from Germany after the upgrade. This week the engineer is packing up the different components that need to be sent away. We are very excited about the new developments!

This does not necessarily mean that you cannot continue with any experiments. The Olympus IX81 wide field fluorescent microscope is still available and can produce high quality images as well. Please do not hesitate to discuss with us how you can continue with your analysis.

I will post some more details on the upgrade in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on the blog!

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Mar 04

Flow Cytometry Course

Flow cytometry background.jpgDate: 19-20 March 2015

Time: 9:00-16:00

Location: Mike de Vries building, room 2022 (CAF Fluorescent Microscopy Unit)

 

This course introduces the participant to flow cytometry and the applications of this technology, with a special focus on sorting. Participants will get the chance for hands-on acquisition of samples to familiarise themselves with the work flow on a flow cytometer, the setup and calibration of the instrument and data analysis. Emphasis will be placed on sorting and students will get the chance to run a short sorting experiment themselves.

The content that will be covered include:
• Basic understanding of the components of a flow cytometer
• Knowledge of key concepts: light and colour, scatter, laser delay, pulse area and width, spillover
• Hands on acquisition
• Data analysis using FACSDiva and FlowJo
• Setup and running of a sorting experiment

Participants will receive a certificate of attendance at the end of the course.

Interested students/supervisors should contact Lize Engelbrecht as soon as possible as there are only limited spaces.

If the courses is full, but there is lots of interest, we could repeat the course fairly soon.

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Mar 04

Good news in terms of new prices for Stellenbosch researchers

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The new price list for 2015 is available. Please look under Prices for the category into which your institution falls. Especially Stellenbosch researchers would be happy to find that internal prices have been slightly reduced in some cases. We’ve also decided to differentiate between normal hours and after hours, to encourage students to learn how the instruments work and continue analysing even when staff members are not available. This would be strictly monitored to prevent risk to the instruments, but we believe it is in support of the good research some of our students are doing.

 

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