The Hollings Cancer Center Molecular Imaging Core Facility supports two confocal laser scanning microscopes. The Leica TCS SP2 AOBS is currently housed in the Department of Pharmacology.This instrument consists of an upright microscope with a full complement of oil/water objectives with DIC capabilities, a dual monitor configuration, a programmable manual control panel and a laser system which can generate six independent lines of excitation. The system features the programmable AOBS (Acousto-Optical Beam Splitter) and the SP prism spectrophotometer for emission detection.
The Leica software license includes a multi-color analyzing application, 3D reconstruction and analysis ability, quantification tools, and multicolor restoration and spectral un-mixing capabilities.
Analytical Biology applications include the photobleaching applications FRAP and FLIP, and both FRET acceptor bleaching and sensitized emission. The Physiology package, Live Data Mode, allows interactive data imaging of live cells.