Taatjes Lab Research

Microscopy Imaging Center, Director

Center for Biomedical Shared Resources, Director

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A Larner College of Medicine, as well as Vermont Cancer Center Core Facility.

Facility instrumentation

  • JEOL 1400 transmission electron microscope
  • JEOL 6060 scanning electron microscope
    • with an Oxford INCA energy dispersive spectroscopy system
  • Nikon N-STORM Super-resolution microscope
  • Zeiss LSM 510 META confocal scanning laser microscope
  • Olympus BX50 wide-field fluorescence imaging system
    • with a QImaging Retiga 2000R digital camera
  • Zeiss Axioscope wide-field fluorescence microscopy system
  • Olympus inverted IX70 microscope
    • with QImaging Retiga 2000R digital camera
  • Applied Biophysics Electric Cell Substrate Impedance Sensing system
  • CompuCyte laser scanning cytometer
  • Arcturus laser capture microdissector
  • Asylum Research MFP-3D-BIO atomic force microscope
  • Caliper LifeSciences IVIS Lumina II Whole Animal In Vivo Imaging System
  • dedicated Dell workstations
    • for image analysis and processing
    • with attached flat bed scanners
    • image analysis software packages
      • MetaMorph from Universal Imaging (now Molecular Devices)
      • Volocity from Improvision, Inc.
      • Stereo Investigator from MicroBrightfield, Inc.

Clinical role

  • Directing the clinical electron microscopy in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
  • Assuring compliance of the laboratory with College of Academic Pathologists (CAP) guidelines
    • The Microscopy Imaging Center was recently awarded accreditation by the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of CAP.

Research

  • collaborative studies using multimodal imaging techniques in investigations of
    • cardiovascular disease
    • environmental pathology
    • membrane fusionfibroblast response to stretching

Teaching

  • Pathology, Anatomy & Neurobiology graduate level courses
  • a week-long course at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine
  • member of The Teaching Academy at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont

Research Highlights:

We are using multiple microscopy-based imaging methods to investigate the etiology of the anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS), a human thrombogenic disorder. Currently, we are focusing on the interaction between immune complexes derived from patient plasmas and phospholipids, either as native vesicles or complexed with silicon beads. A recent publication highlights these ongoing studies (Taatjes et al. Micron 100:23-29; 2017). Read here