Transgenic Animals

Whole Animal Luminescent Imaging Services

The Penn State College of Medicine (PSCOM) facilities include a centralized facility for Whole Animal Luminescent Imaging, including capabilities from fluorescent as well as luminescent imaging of intact animals. The Core has a Xenogen IVIS 50 system with an added Fluorescent Protein module, located in the CAQ Surgery Suite Room OR3. This suite is secured with a key pad lock to prevent unauthorized access, so you must know the current combination to gain access to the Xenogen instrument (contact the director of the Xenogen imaging facility, Dr. David Feith, (717) 531-6987).

Starting in March, 2009, a fee will be charged for usage of the Xenogen instrument, based on the amount of time the instrument is used, in order to pay for ongoing annual maintenance agreement costs. That fee schedule can be downloaded by clicking HERE.

Scheduling for instrument use is done using the on-line calendar at http://genomics.calendarhost.com/cgi-bin/calweb/calweb.cgi. The Xenogen instrument scheduling is done using the last entry on that calendar list (CAQ OR3). As there are additional Ophthamology imaging instruments in the same room, please note on the calendar that you are using the Xenogen instrument, and whether you need exclusive use of the room during the time period you are signing up for, i.e., whether your experiment would allow someone to use the other imager during the same time period.

Additional information about luminescent imaging as well as commercially available mouse models to use this non-invasive imaging method can be found at www.xenogen.com.

Additional custom transgenic mouse models for this type of imaging can be constructed in our Transgenic Animal Facility.

To arrange training for using the Xenogen instrumentation or to get the current keypad combination necessary for entry into Room CAQ OR3, please contact the director of this facility, Dr. David Feith, (717) 531-6987.