Overview:

Megakaryocyte The image shown is of an endomitotic megakaryocyte. The megakaryocyte is a bone marrow cell that is a precursor for blood platelets. It is called a megakaryocyte because it has many nuclei and is very large. The cell was stained for nuclei (blue), phosphorylated histone H3 (green) and alpha tubulin (red). The micrographs were collected in the Moores UCSD Cancer Center Microscopy Shared Resource using deconvolution microscopy by Amy Geddis of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, with assistance from Steve McMullen. Perspective views were rendered with the Volume Explorer program written by Mike Bailey of the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

The Microscopy Shared Resource comprises valuable, modern tools which are made available as routine services to Cancer Center Members and other UCSD investigators. The services provided have been crucial for individual laboratory projects, and intra- and inter-programmatic research. With increasing frequency, Center investigators are addressing the molecular and cellular functions and intracellular localization of genes implicated in the genesis or growth modulation of cancer cells. As new cloning technologies have become available, investigators in Cancer Biology, Cancer Genetics and our clinical investigation programs have been identifying candidate genes that may be responsible for various components of the malignant phenotype at a rapid pace. However, solving the functions of these genes is often rate limiting. As clues to the functions of candidate genes are often gained by studying the location of the gene products in cells, services provided by the DICM Shared Resource assist investigators in their quest for answers. The facility is greatly enhanced by collaborations with members of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and NPACI (National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure) in conjunction with the Moores UCSD Cancer Center Data Compilation Shared Resource These collaborations have truly changed the way we visualize and analyze 3-dimensional microscopy data sets. Using NAPCI and SDSC software, expertise and hardware, users of the Cancer Center's imaging facility have been afforded unique opportunities created by these remarkable groups of computer scientists.