May 25

Weekly update: 25 May 2015

A few things to take note of:

1. Our FACS Aria is booked for repairs today and tomorrow, so the instrument should be available from Wednesday onwards.

2. The installation of the loan confocal microscope has been postponed until the week of 8 June. We are waiting for the factory in Germany to send a replacement PC, which they first had to configure before the shipment.

3. For those who don’t know, our booking system now changed to the Quartzy system (www.quartzy.com – our group name: CAF Fluorescent Microscopy Unit; for flow cytometry on Tygerberg campus the group name is Flow Cytometry). You are welcome to make bookings. We will notify you within 24 hours if the booking needs to be changed. The booking system does not allow you to book assistance at the same time, and we will need to confirm that one of us will be able to assist you.

 

0

May 06

Loan confocal microscope

Fantastic news!

Zeiss managed to arrange a loan confocal microscope for us to use while our own instrument is being upgraded. The microscope arrived in South Africa this morning and will be delivered and set up in the next few days. We anticipate that we could already start taking the first images on Monday 11 May!

In terms of confocal microscopy, the microscope has almost identical settings to our own microscope (it is just a newer model). However, it does not have any super-resolution components, so unfortunately we will only be able to do confocal microscopy. Hopefully the majority of you will be able to get great results with this microscope.

For those who needs the super-resolution platform, the news is not so good. We’ve learnt in April that the upgrade and installation of our own microscope would take another 4 months, so we will only have super-resolution again in September. We apologise for this inconvenience.

As soon as we’ve settled in with the new microscope, I will arrange the long overdue courses. I have a long list of students who showed interest in the course, so I will arrange as many courses as required. Please let me know if you are also interested in attending such a course.

 

0

Mar 27

Safety comes first!

We want to encourage our users to continue their analysis even when we are not here. Thus if a user has been trained and the staff approves, such a user can continue working deep into the night (as we know students sometimes do when it isSecutiry crunch time!!). To make sure anyone in the unit is safe at all times, we are in the process of installing an alarm system and card reader. This will not only make sure the equipment does not find a different owner during night time, but also ensure that only persons who belongs in the unit can enter, keeping our users safe. There is panic buttons installed, to report fire, a medical situation and any other emergency.

This new development could cause a few logistical problems. As soon as the card reader is installed, all users who currently have permission to work after hours, should ensure that their cards are activated for the unit. Also, such a student would need the code for the alarm system. Therefore it is very important to notify us if you are planning to work after hours. It is then also that person’s responsibility to ensure that the alarm system is activated upon leaving.

Apart from these new developments, we also want to remind our users to make sure of the following:

  • Do you have a mobile phone (with charged battery) with you?
  • Do you know where all panic buttons are?
  • Do you know where the emergency numbers are displayed in the unit?
  • Do you know where the nearest fire extinguisher is kept?
  • Do you know where the emergency shower is located?
  • Do you know the best exit route from where you are?

We will put a new post here as soon as the alarm system and card reader is in place.

We hope that you will always be able to work in our environment with the peace of mind that you are safe!

0