Imaging facility of IEB ASCR has been officially classified as independent unit within the organization structure of IEB ASCR at the end of 2015. However, its existence has started already in 2006 within the Framework of Research centre of MSMT REMOROST, project n. LC 06034 (http://remorost.ueb.cas.cz/; 2006-2010) with the installation of confocal laser scanning microscope Zeiss LSM 5 Duo equipped with spectral detection and fast line scanner. Using this microscope, in 2006-2010 there have been published numerous original contributions using multichannel and spectral imaging as well as photomanipulation techniques like FRAP and FRET. The unit was equipped with automated station for in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry on whole mounts and sections (The Operational Programme Prague - Competitiveness, project CZ.2.16/3.1.00/21159; 2009), which allowed improvement of immunofluorescence methods. The main attention was however paid to non-invasive in vivo fluorescence microscopy, which was extended by the installation of spinning disk confocal microscope Nikon Eclipse Ti-E with Yokogawa CSU-X1 (investment of AS CR, 2012). This microscope opened new possibilities in the imaging and quantifying cellular events in higher time and spatial resolution. This trend has been extended in 2015, when new laser scanning confocal inverted microscope Zeiss LSM 880 with high sensitivity and spectral detection has been installed (The Operational Programme Prague - Competitiveness, project CZ.2.16/3.1.00/21519; 2015). Together with new upright microscope with structured illumination, Zeiss Apotome 2 (investment of IEB ASCR, 2015) the imaging facility is now optimized namely for demanding observations of dynamics of cytoskeletal dynamics, integral and peripheral plasma membrane proteins, plasma membrane associated-tethering complexes and lipid dynamics.

Imaging facility of IEB CAS is part of national research infrastructure Czech-BioImaging.