About the University Microscope Facility

Welcome to the University Microscope Facility at StFX

The St. Francis Xavier University Microscopy Facility (UMF) provides electron and confocal microscope services.

The UMF is housed in the J. Bruce Brown Building and is comprised of three main instruments: a Philips 410 transmission electron microscope (TEM), a JEOL JSM5300 scanning electron microscope (SEM), and an Olympus FEV300 Confocal laser scanning microscope. Tissue processing equipment includes Reichert and Porter-Blum ultramicrotomes as well as a SPI Sputter coater and Tousimis Samdri critical point drier.

Dr. Arkadiy Reunov, PhD. 

Dr. Reunov is our research and teaching technologist, who comes to us from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He has worked with mammalian and non-mammalian animal models, various invertebrate animals, plants, algae, microalgae, viruses as well as cell cultures. His experience includes training users to prepare specimens and   operate the microscopy equipment. 

Services

We normally conduct an initial review and professional assessment of potential research projects. New projects are given a free trial run to allow the investigator to assess project feasibility. The fee for further investigation is a modest $25 per hour. The UMF also provides contractual imaging for outside organizations for research and development purposes. The fee is negotiable.

Students!

As StFX is concerned with the development of the undergraduate student, it is a primary duty of the UMF to provide instruction in the use of electron microscopes to students in 3rd and 4th year Biology to provide excellent practical training to students so that they can incorporate TEM and SEM into their ongoing research. 

​If you are a student at StFX and are interested in learning more about the microscope facilities available, please contact us. We will be happy to provide a tour of the facilities and discuss how they can be used to enhance your honors or directed studies projects.