Nouvelles

Harvard Medical School today opened the doors of a new facility designed to be one of the world's most sophisticated research centers for life science imaging. The Nikon Imaging Center at Harvard Medical School provides researchers with advanced microscopes and camera equipment, software, staff and expertise, in an environment intended to stimulate the highest levels of scientific inquiry. It is open to Harvard Medical School's Cell Biology department faculty and staff immediately, and will soon be available to guest researchers as well.

The new imaging center was endowed by Nikon Instruments Inc. (Melville, NY) and its distributor in the Boston area, MicroVideo Instruments, Inc., with the latest in advanced Nikon microscope and camera equipment. The facility offers imaging workstations featuring state-of-the-art biomedical research microscopes, confocal instruments, digital imaging equipment, stereo microscopes, micromanipulation tools and related instrumentation, software, and technical support of all kinds.

Researchers will work under the guidance of and in consultation with the new full-time Nikon Imaging Center director, Dr. Jennifer Waters Shuler, a well known authority in bioimaging and most recently the Microscope Facility Director for the Department of Biology at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.

"At the core of our involvement with this Center is the desire to use our resources to promote advanced microscopy imaging in the heart of one of the most energetic and creative bioscience institutions in the world," said Lee C. Shuett, Executive Vice President of Nikon Instruments Inc.

"Nikon Instruments, MicroVideo Instruments, the Imaging Center Director and the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School all share this common vision. By placing our instruments and people at the Center, we will be advancing the skill level of literally hundreds of brilliant young scientists who we can fully expect will be deeply involved in important and significant breakthroughs in scientific discovery in the years ahead," Shuett continued.

"The Nikon Imaging Center at Harvard Medical School is an exciting opportunity to increase the depth and quality of biomedical science through a new type of cooperative relationship between our community and instrument manufacturers," added David Van Vactor, Associate Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. "This shared vision, generously supported by our partners Nikon and MicroVideo, along with several other contributors, promises to drive innovation in experimental approaches and in microscopy, and represents the best spirit of our collective desire to push forward the frontier of knowledge."

The Center opened its doors today with a reception and tour for Harvard Medical School and other area researchers, along with guests and the media. Along with representatives from Harvard Medical School, Nikon Instruments and MicroVideo, several organizations that have donated equipment for the Center were recognized. These contributors include Hamamatsu Corporation, Diagnostic Instruments, Prior Scientific, Universal Imaging Corporation, Brinkmann Instruments, Binder and PerkinElmer.

Nikon Instruments Inc. is the United States and Latin America distributor of Nikon microscopes for the life sciences, instruments and systems for industry, metrology and semiconductor inspection/measuring systems, ophthalmic equipment, and instruments for surveyors, civil engineers and investigators.