Resources

The College of Veterinary Medicine fosters remarkable opportunities to conduct interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary biomedical research.

Outstanding support for teaching and research is available through the college’s Design Group, whose services include biomedical illustration and online course delivery.

COLLEGE RESEARCH RESOURCES

Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory

A full-service, all-species diagnostic laboratory that offers support to the college and university research community. Discipline specialists include anatomic pathologists, clinical pathologists, histotechnologists, microbiologists, virologists, immunologists, toxicologists, chemists, microscopists, parasitologists, and serologists.

Veterinary Medicine Research Farm

An eighty-acre farm on South Race Street, two miles from the college, with extensive facilities for research and instruction involving agricultural animals.

Veterinary Teaching Hospital

Located on the college campus, the Veterinary Teaching Hospital provides a source of naturally occurring animal disease for clinical trials and extensive medical records for retrospective studies. The annual caseload exceeds 20,000 animals. The hospital is accredited by the American Animal Hospital Association. There is a full-service pharmacy on-site. The clinical faculty represents a wide range of specialty expertise, including diagnostic imaging, microsurgery, and anesthesiology.

Confocal Microscope

This image of a mouse uterine section was created by stitching at high magnification. The inset area shows a little of the detail available in the image.

This microscope is available for use by all campus research groups. More information about the microscope is available from Dr. Wenyan Mei.

  • Collect images in 5 channels simultaneously (4 fluorescent +DIC) at high sensitivity
  • Record high-speed events in three dimensions through the resonant scanner to generate 4-dimensional xyz-time data sets in live tissues and cells over very long periods of time
  • Gather large, 3D images of entire tissue sections that can exceed 100 microns in depth while maintaining the resolution to view small, subcellular processes
  • Use photo-activation, FRAP, and other photostimulation techniques to manipulate samples simultaneously with image acquisition, to study complex processes like mRNA trafficking, protein diffusion or microbe invasion

The scanning system of this A1R confocal microscope is coupled to a Nikon Ti-E motorized inverted microscope. The Nikon Ti-E motorized inverted microscope includes:

  • Multiple objectives (10x Plan Apo, 20x Plan Apo VC DIC, 40x plan fluor 40×1.3 oil, 60x plan apo λ/1.40 oil, 100x plan apo λ / 1.45 oil)
  • Perfect Focus System
  • Stage-top incubator
  • Fast Piezo z-focusing stage
  • Motorized, encoded stage
  • Anti-vibration table

The scanning system includes:

  • 4 channel detectors (diode laser 405 nm, 488 nm, 561 nm, 640 nm) for simultaneous acquisition of 4 fluorescent channels
  • 2 high-sensitivity GaAsp detectors, 2 high quantum efficiency PMTs with sensitivity up to 850 nm, and a transmitted light detector
  • A1R confocal scan head with both resonant and galvanometric scanners.  The galvano scanner can acquire images up to 4096 x 4096 pixels with a zoom of up to 1000x. The resonant scanner allows performing high-speed imaging at 30 frames per second at resolution 512 x 512 pixels, and up to 420 frames per second at a reduced field of view (512 x 32 pixels)
  • Motorized detector for transmitted DIC

The A1R confocal microscope is fully controlled by an upgraded module of the NIS-Elements C software, which is capable of performing high level data analysis.

Some features of this high-content software are:

  • Automatic collection and analysis of large numbers of images across an entire slide or from each well of a multiwell plate. This dramatically reduces the heavy workload traditionally required to generate large sample size data and high-quality, unbiased data analysis
  • XY navigation and Z navigation during image acquisition without switching between the eyepieces and the computer
  • Multipoint imaging at multiple XY and Z points

A separate work station loaded with the NIS-Elements C software is available for confocal data analysis and image editing.

Shared Equipment Rooms

Located in the Veterinary Medicine Basic Sciences Building and the Small Animal Clinic, shared equipment rooms house common-use research instrumentation. A list of available equipment can be obtained from the Office of Research and Advanced Studies or on the college’s intranet site: https://vetmed.illinois.edu/intranet-research/

Histology Services

For histology services, please see:

Grants and Contracts Office

Support for proposal development (e.g., budget preparation, budget justification, electronic submission process, and tracking grant deadlines) and contract services (e.g., non-disclosure agreements and material transfer agreements). Go to the Grants and Contracts intranet page.

Internal Research Grants

Funds awarded annually—typically from the Animal Health and Disease program, the Hatch program, and the Companion Animal Memorial Fund—through a competitive process of proposals reviewed by faculty members serving on the college’s Research Advisory Committee. Go to the Research intranet page.

The Design Group @ Vet Med

graphic services center located within the college that offers 3D modeling and animation from data sets; biomedical illustration; graphic, public and web design; online course design; and more.

Veterinary Medicine Library

departmental unit of the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, located in the Veterinary Medicine Basic Sciences Building. The collection supports instruction, research, and general reference needs. Resources are largely made available online through the Bioinformation Virtual Libraries.

Office of Research and Advanced Studies

The Office of Research and Advanced Studies serves a variety of functions:

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers a rich array of research support, from visualization labs to state-of-the-art fabrication facilities.

See Centers and Labs page

CAMPUS RESEARCH RESOURCES

Beckman Imaging Center

Carver Biotechnology Center

Immunology at Illinois

Institute for Genomic Biology Core Facilities

Interdisciplinary research and research support units reporting to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Office of Proposal Development (for interdisciplinary proposals that have university-wide impact)

Resources for Clinical and Translational Research at Illinois from the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Initiative