Core Policies | Neuroscience Microscopy Core

Only users trained by core staff can access the microscopes, workstations, cryostat, and supplies.
You must receive training for each separate microscope.
If you were previously trained and haven’t used the microscopes recently, contact us to schedule a retraining.
Instrument reservations are made through the iLab reservation system.
Equipment can be booked no more than one week in advance. If you require a reservation for a particular time beyond one week, please reach out to core staff so we can accommodate.
If you are unable to use the equipment at your reserved time, please cancel your reservation so other users know the equipment is available.

Only use immersion oil on oil objectives. Be mindful if switching between an oil objective to an air or water objective. Please clean the objectives with lens paper following use.
Do not change hardware or software settings that you are not familiar with. If modifications are required, please notify core staff and return the settings to standard configuration at the end of your session.
Following microscope use, the room and equipment should be left clean, operational, and in the standard configuration.
If something is not functioning normally while you’re using the equipment (i.e. no light, software is frozen, error message pops up, etc.), please contact core staff immediately so that we can resolve the issue as soon as possible.
If your images aren’t looking how you’d expect or like them to, please ask core staff for help. That’s why we’re here!

Users are responsible for their own data. Data storage on the equipment data drives should be considered a temporary solution only.
Users must transfer their data off the core computers at the end of each session.
Check that no data has been left on the desktop, in the documents or downloads folder, or recycling bin.
Do not save to the C: drive, as excess space taken up on the local computer will slow down the software for all users.
We highly recommend storing your data in at least two other locations: flash drives, external drives, shared drives, OMERO, etc. Hot swap drives are a great option for both storage and fast file transfer for large amounts of data. Please contact core staff if interested in learning more.

Billing is based on reservation length as recorded by iLab. If more or less time is spent on the equipment than was reserved, users should email core staff so their reservation can be updated to reflect actual use.
Billing will be done through iLab and invoices will be sent out on a monthly basis.

Please note that we require citing the facility in the acknowledgments section of any publication which has results obtained with the microscopes in the Neuroscience Microscopy Core. This is very helpful as we work to maintain funding sources for the facility. We suggest using the following language for this acknowledgement:
Microscopy was performed at the UNC Neuroscience Microscopy Core (RRID:SCR_019060), supported, in part, by funding from the NIH-NINDS Neuroscience Center Support Grant P30 NS045892 and the NIH-NICHD Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center Support Grant P50 HD103573.

Our main goal is to support the outstanding researchers who use our core facility to the best of our abilities. Please contact us with any questions or concerns you might have, or with suggestions on how we could better support you.