microscopic samples for schools

[mmodel]

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Dear All,

We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
(1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
(2) easy to obtain or maintain
(3) would stick to glass
(4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
(5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)

Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!

Mike

[Robin Battye-2]

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Why not take a look at some drosophila S2 cells?

They are easy to maintain and are easily available.

https://valelab.ucsf.edu/external/moviepages/moviesMitosis.html

Cheers Robin

-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On
Behalf Of MODEL, MICHAEL
Sent: June-29-15 12:23 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: microscopic samples for schools

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Dear All,

We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a
source of cells that would be:
(1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
(2) easy to obtain or maintain
(3) would stick to glass
(4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too
big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
(5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)

Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any
ideas? Thank you!

Mike

[Steffen Dietzel]

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Mike,

the usual question comes back to you: What do you want to do with them?

Are you sure cell walls don't work? Moss (no air in the leaves! eg.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plagiomnium_affine_laminazellen.jpeg 
) or algae from a  garden pond are great samples. A sample of the latter
usually will include a bunch of various Protozoa (Paramecium,....) and
small animals that might be what you need. The water from an older vase
of flowers might do too..

I never worked with them, but maybe Dictyostelium would be interesting
for you, if you need something more reproducible. I find Drosophila
cells awkwardly small. Another option: try to find out what your local
zoology department is using for their first year students for teaching
(assuming that "animal kingdom is still taught in practical courses as
it used to be...)

For a school, you probably don't want to use mammalian cells for the
difficulty in cultivation, certainly not human cells for safety reasons.

Steffen

Am 29.06.2015 um 18:22 schrieb MODEL, MICHAEL:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear All,
>
> We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
> (1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
> (2) easy to obtain or maintain
> (3) would stick to glass
> (4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
> (5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)
>
> Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!
>
> Mike
>
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Steffen Dietzel, PD Dr. rer. nat
> Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
> Walter-Brendel-Zentrum für experimentelle Medizin (WBex)
> Head of light microscopy
>
> Marchioninistr. 27
> D-81377 München
> Germany

[Tamara Howard]

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Mike -

If you can get some termites, they have lovely flagellate endosymbionts:

http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v12/n3/box/nrmicro3182_BX1.html

We used to squish them out right onto a slide for invert zoo lab. I'm not sure if you are trying to do permanent mounts or if live samples are OK, but these were always a big hit with the students.

Tamara

...................................................
Tamara Howard
Dept. of Cell Biology & Physiology
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM


________________________________________
From: Confocal Microscopy List <[hidden email]> on behalf of MODEL, MICHAEL <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2015 10:22 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: microscopic samples for schools

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Dear All,

We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
(1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
(2) easy to obtain or maintain
(3) would stick to glass
(4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
(5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)

Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!

Mike

[Carol Heckman]

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Hi, Mike!

My colleague here has some kind of turtle cells in culture.  They may be muscle cells.  Anyway, he says they are very easy to maintain.  You just close up the flask and leave them on the lab bench in the dark.  I believe the reason for "the dark" is that the phenol red in the culture medium generates some free radicals in the light (but I am not sure about this part.)

If you check online, you may be able to find out more about such cells from herps.
Carol

________________________________________
From: Confocal Microscopy List <[hidden email]> on behalf of MODEL, MICHAEL <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2015 12:22 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: microscopic samples for schools

*****
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*****

Dear All,

We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
(1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
(2) easy to obtain or maintain
(3) would stick to glass
(4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
(5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)

Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!

Mike

[Patrick Van Oostveldt]

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You can take a small piece of fresh liver and use a realy fresh cut of the tissue and make an imprint of that fresh section on a microscope glass, add some phyiological solution (salt, buffer and eventually glucose) cover with a coverglass and make observations.
Cheek cells contain lots of bacterial if you sample before brushing your theets.
Chicken red blood cells are also nice material because they have a well recognisable nucleus which lacks in mamalian red blood cells.
I guess that if you work with tissues of more primitive animals as e.g. insects like fruitflies or a starfisch you can dissect these animals and find a lot of living cells in side. These animals have a open blood system and therefor contains lot of single cells inside and probably the cells survive better at room temperature and atmospheric conditions ( oxygen and carbondioxyde)

Bye

Patrick Van Oostveldt
Dep. Molecular Biotechnology
Ghent University

Mobile [phone]
Sent from my iPad

> On 29 Jun 2015, at 18:22, MODEL, MICHAEL <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear All,
> ion
> We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
> (1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
> (2) easy to obtain or maintain
> (3) would stick to glass
> (4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
> (5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)
>
> Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!
>
> Mike

[Vitaly Boyko]

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Dear List,
I would greatly appreciate if someone could refer me to a publication that compares two CMOS with two EM-CCDs camera via DualCam (DualView, etc.)  setup in ratio imaging applications (FRET, etc.). 
Thank you.
Vitaly

   

[George McNamara]

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Hi Mike,

your cheek cells. Toothpick is preferable to fingernail.
Best if the microscope has phase contrast (don't need to give the 3 hour
Zernike lecture on how it works).

If you have fluorescence capability, DAPI or Proflavine. Rebecca
Richard-Kortum (www.rice360.org) has place a drop of (dilute) proflavine
on her tongue and then imaged with a portable endoscope. See PubMed search:
Richards-Kortum r proflavine
for various papers on this - example,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20585636

Tip: to explain fluorescence, bring a UV black light and bottle of tonic
water - and a glass to drink it from.
Web sites include
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_water   ... good picture of Canada
Dry tonic water.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/15/quinine-tonic-water-gin_n_5982994.html

enjoy,

George
p.s. let me know what happens if you stain cheek cells with tonic water
-- might (or not) lysosomes.


On 6/29/2015 11:22 AM, MODEL, MICHAEL wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear All,
>
> We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
> (1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
> (2) easy to obtain or maintain
> (3) would stick to glass
> (4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
> (5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)
>
> Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!
>
> Mike
>
>    

--



George McNamara, Ph.D.
Single Cells Analyst
L.J.N. Cooper Lab
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX 77054
Tattletales http://works.bepress.com/gmcnamara/42

[George McNamara]

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Hi again Mike,

Dinotoys, both macro -- in the toy -- and micro -- on the microscope ...
or let the kids walk through the puddles (see the web videos).

http://biopop.com/products/dino-pet

slightly less expensive is to just get the Refill

http://biopop.com/products/dino-refills

and for any lab that wants A,T, C, G's scrolling across the wall,
http://biopop.com/products/actg
(timed for one human genome per year ... I don't know if it gets out of
sync on leap year, or accounts for XX or XY or copy number variations if
"personalized" is ordered).

Alternative source 9may need to buy luciferins)
http://www.prolume.com/
http://www.biotoy.com/opening.html
http://www.biotoy.com/en/
(pretty cool videos).


//

Disclosure with respect to biopop.com ... MD Anderson Cancer, where I
work, owns stock in biopop's parent company, Intrexon.
https://www.dna.com/Company/Subsidiaries/BioPop
(as for web site addresses, for biology, does not get much cooler than
www.dna.com ... especially since http://www.dna.org/about/ managed to
not be about biology).
Intrexon and its partner, Ziopharm have a collaboration with our lab.
http://www.cancerfrontline.org/sleeping-beauty-car-t-cells/


Enjoy,

George



On 6/29/2015 11:22 AM, MODEL, MICHAEL wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear All,
>
> We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
> (1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
> (2) easy to obtain or maintain
> (3) would stick to glass
> (4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
> (5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)
>
> Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!
>
> Mike
>
>    

--



George McNamara, Ph.D.
Single Cells Analyst
L.J.N. Cooper Lab
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX 77054
Tattletales http://works.bepress.com/gmcnamara/42

[George McNamara]

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*****

Hi Mike,

not microscope sample per se ... since the microscope slide is one of my
drawers, you are welcome to show your students

http://home.earthlink.net/~tiki_goddess/TikiGoddess.jpg

Featured on May 2015 Biotechnique cover (bring a hardcopy of the issue
with you if possible):

http://www.biotechniques.com/BiotechniquesJournal/2015/May/
http://content.yudu.com/A3niij/May2015/resources/index.htm

more versions of Tiki_Goddess available at

http://works.bepress.com/gmcnamara/68/    (4x zoom down)
http://works.bepress.com/gmcnamara/70/    (2x zoon down, cropped)

back story at

http://home.earthlink.net/~tiki_goddess/

I purchase the slide a long time ago from Caolina Biological Supply Co.
... which stopped carrying it, and their web site is awful.

you might want to get some diatom slides, example,

http://www.diatoms.co.uk/
see
http://nic.ucsf.edu/blog/?p=1279

I also like the variety of the Celestron 50 slide (or 100 slide?)
collections - available from amazon.com

Some more virtual samples

http://meyerinst.com/gigamacro-gallery/
same instrument was used to make  Terabite
http://gigamacro.com/worlds-first-terabite-macro-image-press-release/
http://gigamacro.com/terapixel/
http://meyerinst.com/gigamacro-robotic-macro-imaging/





Enjoy,

George


On 6/29/2015 11:22 AM, MODEL, MICHAEL wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear All,
>
> We are planning to introduce some microscopy into schools. We would need a source of cells that would be:
> (1) without cell walls (not from an onion)
> (2) easy to obtain or maintain
> (3) would stick to glass
> (4) not too big and not too small (if amoebas are ~0.5 mm that would be too big, red blood cells are probably too small and don't stick to glass)
> (5) be alive (cheek cells come out mostly dead, at least from my mouth....)
>
> Maybe C elegans? Or crush some kind of worm and get something out of it? Any ideas? Thank you!
>
> Mike
>
>    

--



George McNamara, Ph.D.
Single Cells Analyst
L.J.N. Cooper Lab
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX 77054
Tattletales http://works.bepress.com/gmcnamara/42