LMU user fees and policy

Gridded and high precision Mattek dishes have 5 dishes per sleeve, the others have 10 dishes per sleeve.

Gridded and high precision Mattek dishes have 5 dishes per sleeve, the others have 10 dishes per sleeve.

All users are welcome to use LMU instruments. To gain access you must first register your imaging project in the Open IRIS reservation system and arrange a short meeting with us (see Open IRIS instructions on our Wiki). A training session will be arranged based on the meeting, and after the training you will be granted reservation rights for the instrument. You can contact us by e-mail (lmu-staff at helsinki dot fi) or by phone.

The above-mentioned meeting is compulsory. You are required to prepare a short presentation (~5 min) about your project so that we can discuss specifics and possible problems. This allows us to choose the right instrument and tailor the training according to your needs. If you do not have previous experience with confocals the training is typically a 3-hour session, depending on your samples. User training is charged according to the duration of the training session.

An active imaging project registered in Open IRIS is required for continued reservation rights. The default duration of an imaging project is one year. After one year the project must be updated, though if you know you are finishing the project soon,  we can extended the end date a few months. If you start a new project, you should register the new project in Open IRIS.

Users from outside of the Institute of Biotechnology also need to fill in the "LMU key activation form" to gain access to LMU facilities. A link to the form is on LMU home page.

If you are doing live imaging with GMO samples, the microscope rooms have to be included in your GMO work application. Human pathogens are not allowed on LMU premises. You are not allowed to touch the microscope controls, door handles, the keyboard or the screen while wearing gloves.  If you need to use gloves to put in your sample, you must remove your gloves before touching anything else.

BSL2 samples

Visualization of live BSL2 samples, such as virus-infected cells, is, at the moment, possible only with the 3I Marianas system and always requires prior approval and discussions with the scientific director of LMU, Maria Vartiainen (maria.vartiainen@helsinki.fi).

Samples must be prepared in your own lab using the appropriate safety procedures.

Samples should be prepared on SBS format multiwell plates (instead of e.g. Mattek-dishes) to minimize the chance of spilling the sample inside the microscope. Plates should be sealed with parafilm and the outside of the plate wiped with an appropriate disinfectant.

Samples must be carried to LMU in a closed secondary container with absorbent materials in the bottom of the container.

After imaging, remove the sample from the microscope and wipe the microscope stage with tissue soaked in 70% ethanol (or another appropriate disinfectant). Any spills must be cleaned immediately and thoroughly with an appropriate disinfectant. All spills must be reported immediately to the LMU staff.

All samples and other material including used tissues must be taken back to the host lab for disposal, transported in a secondary container as above.

Reservations for LMU microscopes and workstations are made in Open IRIS (see instructions on our Wiki). LMU instrument computers and workstations with Windows operating system are running Open IRIS Agent software that requires you to log in to Open IRIS. The booking has to be for the same user who is using the instrument. The Agent records the time when you log in and log out, modifying the end time of the session automatically. You can also manually extend the session as long as there are no conflicts to other reservations. You may cancel a booking only when a start time of the booking is more than 2 hours in future. Similarly, start point of reservation cannot be moved into the future, nor end time towards the present if the reservation would start within 2 hours of the current time. Reservations can only be modified by the person who has made them or by an administrator. If you want to shorten your reservation but can't, contact LMU. All extra usage that has not been properly reported to us within two working days will be charged 100% extra. No-shows will be billed as normal.  We ask you to make reservations so that prime time is used efficiently - i.e. avoid leaving one hour gaps unnecessarily.

Minimum reservation time is 1h except for workstations, Leica DM5000 and MD Nano where minimum is 30 minutes. You are not allowed to use equipment without reservation. Pricing and usage limits are based on the following: Prime Time (workdays 9-17), Night Time (every day 22-08) and Other Time (not Prime or Night Time). Night Time pricing is not available on all systems.

Reservations have time limits as shown below (longer reservations by separate agreement):

• LSM700, GE Deltavision, 3i Marianas: 10h/day + night time
• SP8 Upright, Stellaris 8: 4h prime time/day
• SP8 STED, Aurox Clarity: 10h prime time/week
• DM6000B: 3h prime time/day
• Other systems: no limit

However, these limits are not applied if you are doing the booking for the current day.

Reservations can be made up to 21 days in advance. If you need to reserve any of our equipment further in advance, please contact us.

When making a reservation you must book the lasers you are going to use (Add-On in OpenIRIS) . This is important information in order to let the previous user know which lasers can be shut down to extend their life time.

Depending on the system, +29C and +37C heating options are available. Reservations with heating are indicated with color in Open IRIS and Open IRIS automatically enforces warm-up and cool-down periods between bookings in different temperatures (shown by gray in Open IRIS). If you still want to use the microscope during the warm up or cooling down, ask LMU staff to make a reservation for you, though we strongly advice against this. Notably LightSheet microscope does not take extra time to change temperature.

Cancellations

In general cancellations must be done 2h before the reservation starts.  We can cancel a reservation after this if there is a pressing reason.

Before finishing your session, always check in the reservation system what the next user will do, and conclude your session accordingly.

Microscope, lasers, instrument PC

• If the next user comes within two hours:  Leave on the system and the lasers the next user will use, then log off from the computer. 
• Otherwise shut down the system. 
• If you leave the lasers on unnecessarily, you will be charged for the time as if you had extended your reservation. Also if the lasers are left on because you did not arrive for your reservation, you will be charged for the time as if you had extended your reservation until the next user arrives.

Heating

• If the next user within 24 hours has a 29C or 37C reservation: Leave/turn on the heating. If necessary, adjust the temperature setting of the heater.
• Otherwise leave the system at room temperature.
• LMU staff will make an effort to have the systems on the right temperature but the final responsibility is on the previous user to leave the system on right temperature.  If you are planning to use a microscope at 29C or 37C at a time when there has been no use within previous 24 hours (for example on Monday morning), you have to make sure yourself that microscope will be warmed up before your session.

Analysis workstations

• HELMI 3D VM-, 3D- and HCA-Workstations remotely: If you are using them remotely by VMware Horizon Client, choose disconnect and log off from Horizon Client task bar.
• 3D-, HCA-, LS- and Light Sheet image processing-Workstations locally: Sign out or log off from the workstation when you are logged in locally. Do not shut down.
• 2D-Workstation: If there is no bookings at the sam week, shut down. If there is other bookings at the same week you can just log off.

Billing is based on a time the user has been logged in at computer at a resource. Price list for the resources. Accumulated bills will be sent out to the groups approximately four times per year. Time spent solving hardware problems is not charged if the time exceeds 30 minutes.

LMU staff provides basic training and troubleshooting during prime time at no extra cost. More advanced and customized projects can be done as scientific collaboration. In exceptional cases, LMU staff can also image your samples for you as fee for service. On scientific collaboration we charge the used equipment time and on fee for service the equipment time + operator cost.  

LMU has two email lists:

• lmu-list is for general messages for new equipment, demos, seminars etc. This is a low volume list for users, group leaders and other interested parties
• grp-lmu-users is for day to day messages when something breaks down or when there is changes how to use a software or microscope. Participants are active users from University of Helsinki ie. users who have recently made a reservation. 

Messages to the email lists are also put into the Yammer group Light Microscopy at Viikki. List membership is mandatory for the users.

You may store microscopy data on lmu_active disk for two years. After that the data is moved into another space for a half year.  Data from users without active project is similarly removed to separate space for a half year. Older data will be moved semi-automatically to L:\lmu-archive and this transfer is based on modification time. Please note that this may break your datasets. Importantly, the user is responsible for real archival of the data.

LMU retains the right to manage user data on LMU network storage and LMU administrated computers (including HY-data and LocalData folders) in order to free diskspace as necessary by moving data therein to external non-secure media. 

LMU should be mentioned in the acknowledgements in research publications containing imaging data acquired in or with support of LMU, or when LMU staff contributed significantly to the image analysis. Here are examples of a sentences that can be used:

• "Imaging was performed at the Light Microscopy Unit, Institute of Biotechnology, supported by HiLIFE and Biocenter Finland."
• "The authors acknowledge the assistance and support (of N.N.) of the Light Microscopy Unit, Institute of Biotechnology for performing image analysis."

We kindly ask to send a notification about your LMU-supported publication to the head of the imaging facility: Kimmo.tanhuanpaa@helsinki.fi