At NYU Langone’s Microscopy Laboratory, we ask that you follow our policies to ensure that experiments run smoothly.

We also require that you acknowledge us in publications and/or other media that display data resulting from the use of our technologies.

Hours and Access

Microscopes are available 24 hours a day. We arrange card access to the Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center and the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences (East and West towers) after you have completed training.

Standard microscope assistance hours are Monday through Friday from 9:30AM to 5:30PM. Light microscopy and image analysis appointments may be arranged at other times by contacting the lab.

Sign-Up and Usage

To reserve time on an instrument, faculty, staff, and investigators must be registered in iLab. We have also provided iLab login instructions for NYU Langone, NYU, NYU College of Dentistry, and external users. For instruments that have paper logbooks, you must sign in at the beginning of the session.

To use our instruments, you must first be trained and approved by our staff. There are no exceptions to this rule.

After you complete training, we encourage unassisted use of most microscopy resources at any time.

Sign-up times are strictly enforced. You must vacate the equipment promptly for the next scheduled user. You may negotiate exceptions, but no user is required to cede their time except for staff-mandated maintenance issues.

If you leave a piece of equipment before the end of your reserved time without signing out or shutting it down, our staff or the subsequent user may clean up and begin working. They will do their best to ensure your data are saved, but there is no guarantee that unsaved data will be preserved. You may also be charged the assisted rate for this service. You may not have access to the instrument until your next reserved time.

Exceptions to Our Sign-Up and Usage Policies

The Leica Stellaris 8 Falcon laser-scanning confocal, the Olympus Fluoview multiphoton microscope, and the Zeiss LSM 700 laser-scanning confocal microscope were purchased specifically for cell work. Between 9:00AM and 6:00PM, sign-ups for these instruments may be limited to three-hour blocks.

If you are more than 30 minutes late for an appointment, another user may step in to use the remaining time in your scheduled session. You may be billed for the time you missed. You may be billed starting from the start time of your appointment, regardless of your arrival time.

Storing Data on Facility Computers

All data must be saved in the designated User Files directory. Any data left on the desktop or other system directories may be deleted without warning.

It is NYU Langone policy that data should be stored on the institution’s server. For most users, this is space allocated at \\research-cifs.nyumc.org\. You must copy your data there or to another location before the end of your scheduled session. Therefore, budget your time accordingly.

Often, there is enough disk space for your data to reside on our hard drives for at least a few days, and we back up some of the systems. However, we cannot guarantee your data will be preserved, so please do your best to make multiple copies.

A minimum of 500 MB must be left on each hard disk. If there is a problem with disk space while work is in progress, your files may be summarily deleted.