There are two Longwood-area locations for Core B services and two Harvard-based locations for access to advanced imaging instrumentation and services. For information about the integrated services provided in Core B, please contact Susan Hagen, PhD, Core B Director at shagen@bidmc.harvard.edu.

All work in Core B is done on a fee-for-service basis to recover costs for equipment upkeep, supplies, and technical assistance. The fee schedule for HDDC members includes priority access and a substantial discount for all HDDC users.

Longwood Site 1: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)

Core B at the BIDMC consists of two interacting components:

  • The Histology core: Provides service for paraffin embedding, sectioning, staining (including special stains), and frozen sectioning.
  • The Microscopy and Immunostaining core: Provides shared equipment, service and/or training for confocal (live/fixed tissue or cell), widefield, photodocumentation, electron microscopy, and digital image processing/analysis. The immunostaining section of this core provides service for immunoperoxidase or immunofluorescence staining of paraffin or frozen sections. 

BIDMC Core Contact: Susan J. Hagen, PhD
Histology Supervisor: Suzanne White, BS
Confocal/Immunostaining/Image Analysis Supervisor: Xu Xu, PhD
Immunostaining Specialist: Daniel Roberts, BS
Electron Microscopy Specialist: Kyle Smith, BS

Longwood Site 2: Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH)

Core B at the BCH provides modern motorized microscopes capable of multiple modes of imaging for both live and fixed biological samples. This site also has image processing support and services.

BCH Core Contact: Jay Thiagarajah, MD, PhD
Microscopy Supervisor: Michael Anderson, PhD

*Procedure to use equipment at BCH: Contact Michael Anderson to arrange for use of equipment. You will need to provide Security in the Enders building with your driver’s license to gain access to the building.

Harvard University Site 1: Harvard Center for Biological Imaging (HCBI)

The Harvard Center for Biological Imaging (HCBI) site is a state-of-the-art imaging core and Evergreen Center for Carl Zeiss, Inc, which provides a wide range of instrumentation for cutting-edge conventional and super-resolution microscopy. This facility is for independent usage (no service work) after training by HCBI staff and is available to all HDDC member labs.  Please arrange HCBI usage through Susan Hagen (email above).  An equipment list, training information and resources for the HCBI can be found at http://hcbi.fas.edu.

Harvard University Site 2: Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS)

The Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) is a world-renowned core facility that provides instrumentation and training for the study, design and fabrication of nanoscale structures.  For HDDC members, we leverage equipment with cross-over function for biologists in electron microscopy techniques to provide members with assistance for 3-D electron microscopy studies.  For this, members can receive training to use the focused ion beam (FIB)/scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and related equipment for super-resolution 3-D imaging of biological samples. Alternatively, the EM specialist in Core B (BIDMC) has been trained on this equipment and has utilization permissions and can collect data at the CNS to assist with member projects. This is a new option for HDDC members for which the methods/workflow for biological samples was recently developed. Please arrange usage of the CNS through Susan Hagen (email above).