Highlights from the Imaging Cores - Optical 2026 Annual Report
RESEARCH - Biological microscopy supports both basic and translational research, providing the ability to image, in multiple dimensions, morphologic changes, labeled biomarkers, and proteins in cells and tissues. The funded research performed on our instrumentation supports and advances the University of Arizona’s Strategic Imperative "Research that Shapes the Future" and the presence of this core facility ensures that PIs will have competitive grant applications.
Our mission is to facilitate basic and translational research at the University of Arizona. We provide our users with expert consultation, training, and ongoing technical support as they perform their research using the core’s full range of basic to sophisticated optical microscopy instruments so that they can obtain reliable and reproducible scientific data.
Impact Metrics (Fiscal year 2025):
- Core usage - 124 total users, from 60 labs, representing 23 departments and 6 Colleges (Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences; Engineering; Medicine; Optical Sciences; Pharmacy; Science)
- Grants supported - 40 federal (>$95.5M in total funding) and 11 non-federal (>$9.0M in total funding)
3 year Metrics (Fiscal years 2023, 2024, 2025):
- Equipment Enhancement Fund (EEF) awards - 1
- Core Facility Pilot Projects (CFPP) supported - 11
- Publications - 68 publications (includes a few preprints) used the core instrumentation and/or acknowledged the core. In addition, the core was acknowledged in 18 PhD dissertations, 7 master's theses, and 2 honors thesis.