Imagine looking at a live animal the same way you use Google Maps. Start with a bird’s-eye view and zoom in, past the hair, through the skin, down to an organ. Zoom again; now you see the vessels feeding the organ. Another zoom and you see the individual cells. Keep going, and you’re inside the cell, watching individual organelles at work, in real time.

That’s the vision for the University Imaging Centers, where, as program director Mark Sanders says, “the university sees the future.” Though the Google Maps of microscopes is not a reality yet, the Imaging Centers is approaching its vision.

A national center of excellence

The University of Minnesota’s Imaging Centers was recently acknowledged as a Nikon Center of Excellence–one of a select group of centers in the country. The designation recognizes the Imaging Centers for exemplary performance and as an integral component of fundamental research on imaging technology. Another plus: the Imaging Centers will evaluate and test cutting-edge imaging technology and expand its role as an international learning resource center.

Remarkably, as a business unit, the University Imaging Centers is just over three years old, consolidated from several imaging labs across the U. Since consolidation, the Imaging Centers has received three significant funding awards totaling more than $11 million, allowing it to improve facilities, add needed expertise and purchase new equipment.

The Imaging Centers’ state-of-the-art equipment allows it to work on an extraordinary variety of  projects and collaborate with researchers and institutes across the U. Because many of the digital files generated are so large (up to 20GB), the Imaging Centers partners with the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute for data storage.

Director Sanders notes, “We can use the same tools to solve all kinds of research problems. We work with animal and plant tissues, study crop pathogens, cancer mechanisms and treatments, everything from very basic research to business applications.”

For example, the Imaging Centers has helped anthropologists study the past by evaluating the material left on stone-age tools. “We could observe at the microscopic level the changes that took place in tools and look for signs of biological material on the tool,” Sanders explains. This information helps anthropologists determine the intended use of the tool, the materials being used by ancient humans and the foods being consumed.

Specialized service and training

Looking to the future, companies come to the Imaging Centers for a variety of purposes. Sometimes business research involves trade secrets or competitive concerns, so the Centers’ staff can train the business’s staff to use the imaging equipment, or the Centers can consult and collaborate with the business.

The Imaging Centers also hosts international guests who are training on and using the equipment. At a recent symposium, only two of twenty-four participants were from the university. Sanders notes, “The national and international outreach brings attention to the university as a center of excellence.”

Sanders is enthusiastic about the Imaging Centers and what it means to research. “Biology is the study of life. Before, we could only view tissue at the cellular level if it was no longer living. In the past 10 years, new technology has enabled us to view living tissues at increasingly refined levels—down to a hundred nanometers.”

By the numbers

The University of Minnesota Imaging Centers:

• Operates two facilities but will soon open a third for a total of 13,000 square feet
• Has over 450 active users, about 10 percent of whom are from outside the university
• Has about $7 million in hardware and 25 high-end instruments
• Has 8 staff, 4 of whom have PhDs
• Annually provides several symposia and many training sessions, training some 200 individuals
• Is guided by a 13-member advisory panel representing chemistry, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, plant pathology, cell biology and development, neuroscience, cardio-cancer and more

Visit the University Imaging Centers to learn more.

Post by Vincent Hyman, a freelance writer based in St. Paul, Minn.; photography by Andria Waclawski

The Panasus ActiveStor 14 data storage system will yield excellent performance specifications and will eliminate the need to transfer data within systems at MSI. The new system helps meet the needs of MSI users by providing more than one pedabyte of storage and excellent performance characteristics.

Learn more

In 2002, work was completed on the renovation and a 50,000 square-foot expansion of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. The building was then renamed Rapson Hall after Ralph Rapson, former head of the School of Architecture (from 1954-1984).

Rapson, a prolific modernist architect in his own right, left his mark on Minnesota beyond training generations of architects. Cedar Square West in Minneapolis, the original Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and the Rarig Center for the Performing Arts on the U of M’s West Bank are all Rapson buildings.

Interested in what Rapson Hall has to offer? The library boasts more than 30,000 volumes dedicated to architecture, landscape architecture and planning, along with an inspiring collection of architect-designed chairs. The recent additions of a powerful prototyping facility (the DigiFabLab) and wireless virtual courtyard offer more evidence of the college’s drive for innovation in design.

Photos by Andria Peters

Located on the scenic St. Paul campus, Haecker Hall is home to the Department of Animal Science as well as dairy and poultry education and research facilities. The building was established in 1923 and named after Theophilus Levi Haecker.

T.L. Haecker became  a professor of dairy husbandry in the early 1890s, and is best known as the “father of Minnesota dairying” and the “father of cooperative creameries.” He electrified the dairy world in 1913 when he published the Haecker Feeding Standard — the first feeding guide specifying the amount of energy and protein to feed a cow based on the cow’s weight, the amount of milk produced and butterfat percentage.

Interested in learning more about dairy research at the University of Minnesota? Groups of 10 or more can schedule a tour to the St. Paul Dairy Barn and other university animal facilities for just $2 per person.

Photos by Andria Peters

In the late 1970s, the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents renamed the chemical engineering building Amundson Hall. They did this to honor the late Neal Amundson, who led the Department of Chemical Engineering from 1949 to 1974.

Considered by many as the “father of chemical engineering,” Amundson pioneered the application of advanced math techniques to understand the behavior of various chemical processes. Read more

Note: The U of M has received nearly $17 million over the next five years from Dow Chemical Company— $5 million of which will help fund a building expansion for Amundson Hall.

Photos by Andria Peters

Post by Chuck Tomlinson; photos by Andria Peters

As a result of the Central Corridor light rail construction, the laboratory of David Blank, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, has been moved from a location in Kolthoff Hall directly adjacent to the rail line to a renovated space at the north end of Smith Hall.

Blank and his students conduct research using ultrafast laser spectroscopy techniques. The work is highly-sensitive to vibration and even minor changes in temperature and humidity. The department is grateful that Blank’s research is able to continue, with most of the cost paid by the Metropolitan Council, and additional funding from the College of Science and Engineering.

Take the tour

Video by Stephanie Xenos, College of Biological Sciences