Mission Statement
The mission of NCMIR is to develop technologies to bridge understanding of biological systems between the gross anatomical and molecular scales and to make these technologies broadly available to biomedical researchers. NCMIR provides expertise, infrastructure, technological development, and an environment in which new information about the 3D ultrastructure of tissues, cells, and macromolecular complexes may be accurately and easily obtained and analyzed.
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Research Highlights
Ocean Bacteria Infected by Strange Looking Viruses
NCMIR researchers aided in the discovery of the most abundant virus in the ocean. This virus, called a Pelagiphage, attacks the most abundant microorganism in our oceans, a type of marine bacteria called SAR11, with significant implications for how carbon moves between the atmosphere and our oceans. SAR11, a bacterium that's the most abundant organism in the oceans, survives where most other cells would die and plays a major role in the planet's carbon cycle. It had been theorized that SAR11 was so small and widespread that it must be invulnerable to attack. Pelagiphages are so strange-looking that scientists previously didn't even recognize what they were. Read More >>
Accumulated Excess Protein Linked To Development Of Parkinson’s Disease By Progressively Disrupting Neuronal Function And Viability
NCMIR scientists have shown that overexpression of a protein called alpha-synuclein appears to disrupt vital recycling processes in neurons, starting with the terminal extensions of neurons and working its way back to the cells’ center, with the potential consequence of progressive degeneration and eventual cell death. Published in the February 6, 2013 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, this study has major implications for more fully understanding the causes and mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), a neurodegenerative movement disorder that affects an estimated 1 million Americans. Read More >>
Electron Microscopy Achieves A New APEX
Chemists from MIT together with NCMIR Scientists, Mark Ellisman, Tom Deerinck and Gina Sosinsky, have now designed a GFP equivalent for electron microscopy — a tag that allows scientists to label and visualize proteins with unprecedented clarity that offers much higher resolution than fluorescence microscopy. The new tag developed by Jeff Martell and Alice Ting, lead and senior authors of a paper describing the new tag in the Oct. 21 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, could help scientists pinpoint the locations of many cell proteins, providing new insight into those proteins’ functions. This new tag can label proteins throughout the cell — not only within mitochondria but also in the nucleus, the endoplasmic reticulum and the cytosol. Read More >>
It's Not What You Eat But When You Eat
Researchers at the Salk Institute led by Dr. Satchidananda Panda with NCMIR collaborators, published a provocative paper In the June issue of Cell Metabolism showing that mice fed a high calorie/high fat diet on a time restricted feeding schedule were protected against obesity and related complications compared to mice eating the same amount of calories ad libitum. Read More >>
New Insights into the Role of LRRK2 Mutations in the Pathogenesis of Parkinson's Disease
Mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) are associated with increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Kett and colleagues, in collaboration with researchers at NCMIR, have uncovered a novel association of mutant LRRK2 with microtubules using advanced labeling and microscopy techniques. In cultured neurons, LRRK2 mutations appear to enhanced LRRK2 oligomerization, causing it to form filamentous structures visible by light microscopy. Read More >>
Correlative Microscopy Webinar
On April 4, 2012, Mark Ellisman, NCMIR Director, participated in a webinar on “Correlative Microscopy” sponsored by the Biophysical Society, the Biophysical Journal and Cell Press. Moderated by Dr. Paul Wiseman, Associate Professor of Physics and Chemistry at McGill University, the topics in this webinar ranged from combining light, electron microscopy (both selectively stained thick section EM tomography or cryo-EM tomography) and soft X-ray tomography. Read More >>
NCMIR Researchers Help Create a Powerful New Probe for Light and Electron Microscopy
In the April 5th issue of PLoS Biology, NCMIR scientists, in a collaboration with a team led by Nobel laureate Roger Tsien, introduced a new fluorescent probe for correlated light and electron microscopy that overcomes many of the limitations previously encountered by researchers seeking to image cells and tissues at high resolution. Read More >>
UC San Diego's National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) Instrumental in Huntington's Disease Breakthrough
Imagine being able to prevent certain death of nerve cells in the brain and visualizing the feat with the latest in electron microscope technology. That's just what a team of biomedical researchers did, including UC San Diego's own National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR), giving hope to Huntington's disease patients. Huntington’s disease is an inherited and incurable neurodegenerative disorder affecting 35,000 people annually and is caused by mutation of the gene encoding the huntingtin protein. Read More >>
New Research Reveals Unexpected Biological Pathway In Glaucoma
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and four collaborating institutions, including the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, identified a new and unexpected biological pathway that appears to contribute to the development of glaucoma and its resulting vision loss. Read More >>
Serial Block-Face Scanning Electron Microscopy at the 2010 Microscopy and Microanalysis Meeting
At the 2010 Microscopy and Microanalysis meeting in Portland, Oregon, NCMIR scientists presented their work "Enhancing Serial Block-Face Scanning Electron Microscopy to Enable High Resolution 3-D Nanohistology of Cells and Tissues," a collaboration with researchers Roger Tsien's laboratory at UCSD. Read More >>
In The News
UC San Diego and NCMIR Researcher Roger Tsien is awarded the first annual Golden Goose Award from Congress
Roger Tsien, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology at UC San Diego and Nobel laureate for Chemistry 2008, for work related to NCMIR at UC San Diego, received the Golden Goose Award in September 2012. This award “showcases researchers who pursue oddball topics that eventually lead to significant health and economic benefits, the awards were created by a coalition of science organizations (including AAAS, publisher of Science Insider) Read More >>
The Microscopy Society of America awards the Maser Award to NCMIR’s own Gina Sosinsky
At the 2012 Microscopy & Microanalysis meeting held in Phoenix this July, Gina Sosinsky, Assistant Director of NCMIR and a UCSD Professor-In-Residence in Neurosciences was awarded the Morton D. Maser Ward for Distinguished Service to the Microscopy Society of America. This major society award recognizes outstanding volunteer service to the Society. Read More >>
NCMIR at the MET
NCMIR Commissioned to Provide Artwork for the New Medical Education and Telemedicine Center at UCSD
La Jolla, CA , December 2011- Researchers from the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) have been charged with providing science-based artwork for the public areas of the new +100,000 square foot Medical Education and Telemedicine Center on the campus of the School of Medicine at UCSD. The new center will be a hub of learning that incorporates state-of-the-art design and technology to prepare medical students to become physicians and innovators of tomorrow. It will also be used for physicians to learn new skills utilizing the latest advances in medical and surgical technology, such as surgical robotics. Read More >>
Two Top Biological Imaging Centers Offer Powerful Free Online Tool to Researchers, Educators, and Public
ASCB’s The Cell: An Image Library and NCMIR’s Cell Centered Database introduce new interface to spur health discoveries and science education
BETHESDA, MD, USA, DECEMBER 1, 2011 – The collaboration of two leading cell image resource centers now provides a more extensive and advanced facility for archiving, sharing, and analyzing microscope images in great detail. The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), have joined forces to provide a unified interface. This union extends ASCB’s The Cell: An Image Library website with new capabilities and an extensible software infrastructure. Read More >>
Waitt Family Foundation Project Develops Whole Brain Catalog
At the year’s biggest international meeting of neuroscientists, researchers from the University of California, San Diego will unveil a tool that could revolutionize the way scientists and students explore and map the mysteries of the brain. Read More >>
