The Antwerp Centre for Advanced Microscopy (ACAM) has been founded in 2006 and has again been granted a renewed status of core facility, currently governed by an executive committee comprising of 4 academics with a yearlong experience (Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Timmermans (spokesperson), Prof. Dr. Winnok De Vos, Prof. Dr. Samir Kumar-Singh and Dr. Isabel Pintelon (core manager-contactperson)
ACAM provides high-end service and expertise for visualizing biological samples from the nano- to the mesoscale, offering well-established and innovative microscopy techniques. Its mission is to be a hub for quantitative systems microscopy and as such foster research excellence at the University of Antwerp. High-dimensional imaging is a major focus with light sheet microscopy, ultrafast live cell imaging, (cryo-) electron microscopy and high-throughput screening as flagship technologies. ACAM is also part of a Flemish Node in the ESFRI project EuroBioImaging comprising the main in vivo and in vitro imaging core facilities in Europe.
ACAM assists with project planning, sample preparation, microscope selection and use, image analysis and visualization, and data interpretation. It manages 10 advanced microscope systems, a server for image data warehousing and several workstations for image analysis. Next to novel hardware acquisition and maintenance, ACAM develops its own software algorithms and evaluates experimental setups. Routine training and thematic courses are organized to assure apt knowledge transfer regarding new technologies, optimal equipment use and experimental reproducibility. ACAM pursues an open science policy and invests in making its data adhere to FAIR data principles. By combining breadth and depth in offered technology, and by keeping the pulse of the rapidly developing imaging field, ACAM empowers researchers to perform science with high impact.