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Shared Resources
CVS has a long-standing practice of sharing resources, a practice that particularly benefits our students by extending their access to technical personnel and to research facilities beyond those any single laboratory could support. Many of these resources are provided, at least in part, by an NEI Core Grant to CVS, that supports continuing development of new resources to be shared among CVS researchers. The major resources currently available in CVS are described below: The Williams lab developed the first adaptive optics system for the human eye. This system, now in its second generation, is a shared resource accessible to investigators both within and outside CVS. It allows nearly complete correction of the aberrations of the human eye and can be used both for imaging the retina at a microscopic scale and for improving methods to correct vision. Patient Psychophysics Facility: Krystel Huxlin directs a psychophysical and virtual reality testing facility optimized for use with patients, such as those who have suffered strokes or other forms of vision loss. The facility contains a multiple, calibrated display systems for presentation of visual stimuli, multiple eye tracking systems (both head-mounted and desk-top mounted), as well as a head-mounted virtual reality display with incorporated eye tracking capabilities. The facility is located in a dedicated set of rooms located in the ground floor of the Flaum Eye Institute, adjacent to the Ophthalmology Eye Clinic. Histology Lab: The histology lab supported by the Core grant provides equipment and technical support for brain and eye tissue processing and analysis. The lab contains a Microm sliding microtome, a Jung biocut rotary microtome, an Olympus microscope with a Prior motorized stage, and a video camera with microscope attachment for high resolution capturing and processing of microscope images and stereology capabilities. The core grant also supports a full-time histology lab technician to maintain the facility and process brain and eye tissue as well as any other histological tissues that are needed. Animal Facilities: CVS members have access to two vivaria. Both are well-equipped for the housing and care of mammals used in vision research. The facilities and programs of the Vivarium and Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine are fully accredited by the American Association of Laboratory Animal Care. The facilities are staffed by two full-time veterinarians, several animal technicians, and other specialized support personnel.
Electron Microscope Facility: The Medical Center maintains an electron microscope facility that is available to members of CVS. It has an Hitachi 7100 Transmission Electron Microscope with complete digital interface. The facility includes 2 darkrooms, computers, a scanner, a color printer, and a fully equipped wet lab for pre- and post-embedding immuno-EM. A scanning electron microscope is also available for projects requiring surface imaging. The facility is overseen by a full-time electron microscopist / histologist and provides full-service experiments for a nominal fee. Confocal microscopy: A new Zeiss Meta 510 spectral scanning confocal microscope is located within the Ophthalmology Department and is available to CVS researchers. The microscope is a joint Ophthalmology/CVS resource. Adaptive optics imaging: Rochester has four adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopes (AOSLO): 1) a fluorescence AOSLO that can be used for in vivo macaque imaging is located in a 700 square foot laboratory near the vivarium in the School of Medicine and Dentistry. It is a scanning laser system used for high-resolution reflectance and fluorescence imaging of the retina. It was designed and built with funding from BRP(EY014375). 2) a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope equipped with adaptive optics and phase contrast methods for imaging human patients and for imaging individual ganglion cells in vivo non-invasively in humans, and 3) an AOSLO for mouse imaging under construction, and 4) an additional AOSLO for human imaging under construction. Bioptigen SDOCT: The Williams lab has a Bioptigen OCT with a broad band source for ultrahigh resolution imaging of human and animal retina. Light Measuring Equipment: CVS shares a variety of photometric and radiometric instruments that are available to members of CVS to borrow. These include a Photo Research SpectraColorimeter, a portable instrument that can measure reflectance spectra of natural surfaces across the entire visible spectrum with high precision and speed, and the Oriel calibrated light source, broad spectrum, with NIST traceable calibration with digital display which is used as a light source for aligning and testing optical systems and designs. This Unit is available for CVS members to borrow as needed. Also available are Minolta Chromameters a CS-100 and LS-110 which are somewhat simpler and are a bit quicker to use for taking non-contact color measurements of light sources or reflective surfaces. They are especially good for regular calibration of light conditions in on-going experiments. Electrode manufacturing equipment: CVS has a high-temperature tip puller with a helium-filled chamber for pulling of quartz fibers with platinum/tungsten core and a precision diamond grinding disk. The electrode is fixed on a precise 1-dimensional translation sledge with micro-motor for holding and rotating the electrode during grinding.
The Center for Visual Science has a 52 node windows-based cluster computer that is available for the use of its members. Each node has a 2GHz 64-bit processor and 1GB of RAM. The main utility of this resource is in allowing users to run computer intensive tasks much more quickly than is possible with a single computer. These tasks are limited to programs which can be compiled on a windows computer, for example C or C++ code or Matlab m files. The cluster offers tremendous advantages over a single processor if you have an easy way to run jobs in parallel. For instance, tasks such as parameter searching, bootstrapping and data analysis can be carried out at upto 52 times the speed of carrying them out on a desktop computer. Both a C compiler and a compiler for Matlab code is available on the cluster, so code can even be written on a Mac and then sent to the cluster and compiled.
Electronics Shop: CVS has an electronics shop staffed by two full time engineers who are available to CVS members for consultation, circuit design and construction, and interfacing tasks. Machine Shop: The university maintains a fully equipped machine shop staffed by one full-time and four on-call machinists. |
The administrative offices of the Center for Visual Science are located on the second floor of Meliora Hall, which also houses
the 
Brain Imaging Facilities: The Rochester Center for Brain Imaging (
CVS Computing: CVS has a full-time systems manager and three full-time programmers for consultation,
applications programming, systems maintenance, and network administration. The Center maintains a number of servers in-house
that provide various services to the department including E-mail, website hosting, FTP sites, electronic calendaring, and
centralized computer backups. It also has a room dedicated to the shared computing needs of CVS members. The room has three
computers featuring a variety of image scanning devices. Also available for use are high-resolution Hewlett-Packard
black-and-white and color laser printers. The center owns a number of laptop computers, portable data projectors, and portable
storage devices which can be borrowed by CVS members and used as needed, either in their research or to make presentations.
CVS Conference Room: Besides the laboratories of the principal investigators, the CVS Conference Room is
the most important site for training activities.