Intravital Imaging

This Area of Excellence nurtures and facilitates the substantial intellectual and instrumental bioimaging infrastructurewithin the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine.

Institutional core facilities specializing in live cell, tissue and organismal confocal and multi-photon imaging (e.g. Live Microscopy Core) provide state-of-the-art interrogation of the structures and functions that underlie life.

This group relies heavily on the development and use of biological reporter molecules (e.g. fluorescent reporters of protein localization, calcium activities, and microenvironmental pH or molecular rotors for measuring fluid viscosity and shear stress) as well as genetically engineered organisms to capture the images necessary to test their hypotheses.

Multidimensional image reconstruction, sophisticated rendering of computer-generated iso-surfaces and complex boundary thresholding schemes are important topics for this group and the development of novel imaging technologies (e.g. 4D-DPIV) and technology transfers from other scientific disciplinesare critical in keeping the imaging approaches on the cutting edge.