Mission and Goals

The mission of the MICROSCOPY CENTER is to serve the scientific community both within and outside JHU. The Center is committed to fulfilling its academic commitment to the JHU Montgomery County Campus (MCC) faculty and student community.  Graduate students from the Master of Science in Biotechnology programs can perform their internships and directed research projects in the Center and benefit from the application of theoretical knowledge to hands-on laboratory experience. Written and oral presentations of the directed research projects are part of the final graduation requirements.  Lectures and live demonstrations of traditional microscopy techniques and automated fluorescence microscopy for High Content Screening (HCS) are offered to students along with microscopy training workshops in association with selected Biotechnology courses. The Center, as part of the Master of Science in Biotechnology curriculum, will soon offer courses in microscopy and will continue to offer training and research learning opportunities to interested students.  In addition, the Center maintains its own research program with a focus on the development of new microscopy technologies.

The JHU Montgomery County Campus is located in the Shady Grove Life Science Center along the I270-High Technology corridor, site of numerous companies engaged in biotechnology and drug research and development.  Both imaging instrumentation and highly qualified expertise are important discovery tools that are often out-sourced by industrial companies. Thus, in addition to traditional microscopy equipment and techniques, the MICROSCOPY CENTER offers convenient access to high-throughput imaging microscopy for HCS in drug discovery.  Center personnel and faculty are trained microscopists who can assist with the use of the equipment, protocol set up, and sample processing. The Center also offers method and assay development as well as image analysis consultation services.  Nearby government (NIST, NIH, Chemical Genomic Center) and state (University of Maryland CARB) institutions are potential sources of scientific collaborators and users for the MICROSCOPY CENTER. The Center is currently providing service to local biotechnology companies and collaborating with investigators from NIH and other nearby academic institutions.

Center Personnel

The director, Dr. Gary Brooker, is Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry with more than 30 years of experience in pharmacology, biochemistry, neuroscience, and cell biology research, and is a leading expert in fluorescence microscopy and instrumentation development.

 Dr. Maria DeBernardi, the Deputy Director, joined the Center in August 2005 and is an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry. She has long-standing experience in fluorescence microscopy and cell-based assays as they apply to both basic science research and automated imaging for High Content Analysis (HCA) and Screening (HCS) for drug screening. 

Research Advances in Microscopy

Currently, professors from Virginia Tech and Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev are spending their sabbatical in the Center and working with the Center personnel on the development of new forms of microscopy while probing basic cell biology problems