The Advanced Optical Bio-Imaging Platform, a part of NTU Optical Bio-Imaging Centre (NOBIC), provides a comprehensive array of microscopes as well as related optical imaging expertise to cater to the imaging needs of LKC medicine researchers. Our imaging expertise ranges from sample preparation, fluorescent labelling, advanced microscopy and micro-spectroscopy techniques to microscopy image processing and analysis. The microscopes are located in the Clinical Sciences Building (CSB) and Experimental Medicine Building (EMB). If the currently available microscopes do not meet the needs of your experiments, NOBIC team is ready to collaborate with you on development of customised imaging setups.
If you are interested in using AOPIB, kindly refer to information for NOBIC facilities users and these essential guidelines for usage of the facility. Do not hesitate to contact us to discuss how we can help you with your imaging experiments. You can reach us by email: nobic.facilities[..]e.ntu.edu.sg.
When using the facility, kindly adhere to these essential guidelines.
When publishing (in the form of journal articles, talks, posters, social media posts etc.) any images obtained at AOPIB and/or any results derived from those images, kindly acknowledge the facility. Suggested acknowledgment text follows:
"Microscopy images were acquired at NTU Optical Bio-Imaging Centre (NOBIC) imaging facilities at LKCMedicine."
In case NOBIC staff assisted you in your experiment or image processing and analysis, kindly add:
"Assistance of NOBIC staff with image acquisition* / processing* / analysis* is acknowledged." (*select whichever applies)
Do not hesitate to contact us if you need advice on describing the microscopy experiment in Materials & Methods (or analogous) section of your manuscript to ensure the description contains all details needed to reproduce the experiment.
The list of equipment can be found at NOBIC website. The instrument usage rate for each instrument is specified at the respective instrument details page. Training and staff assistance are charged at 90 SGD/hour or 144 SGD/hour for external users (outside of NTU) from academia or industry, respectively.
Confocal microscopes at AOBIP are exempted from NEA N3 license requirement. Users are only required to complete NTU online laser safety module (Working with Non-Ionising Radiation - OHS2NIR01), email us the transcript featuring user's name and date of completion of the module (staff can refer to this guide for transcript export) and sign an SOP for confocal microscope operation.
Beside microscopes, the facility also offers three image processing and analysis workstations with FIJI, Matlab and the proprietary image processing software listed below:
CSBIMAGEANALYS1.staff.main.ntu.edu.sg)
- level 11 (11-02T-01):CSBIMAGEANALYS2.staff.main.ntu.edu.sg)
- level 11 (office
area):EMBIMAGEANALYS1.staff.main.ntu.edu.sg)
- level 7 (07-07-01):Fill this form to obtain card access to the microscopy room at EMB level 7 where the workstation is located.
Submit this form to LKCMedicine IT to apply for remote access to the workstations.
| Image analysis workstation usage fees [SGD/hour] | LKCMed | NTU | Others (Academia/Industry) |
| 0 | 5 | 13.8 / 22.08 |
Kindly take note that USB drives are not allowed on most microscope PCs and do not try to circumvent the ban. The PCs require a specific (obsolete) version of Windows to be able to properly control the microscopes and if anything happens to them, new pre-installed PCs from the microscope vendors would have to be purchased at very premium prices, not mentioning the microscope downtime before the PC is shipped to Singapore.
Instead feel free to use a shared drive mapped as drive S: at the microscope PCs.
How to retrieve data from the shared drive at your desk PC or laptop:
Kindly note that this is a data transfer not a data backup solution (your data will stay at the shared drive for 2 weeks only)