Nikon Instruments has partnered with the Curie Institute and France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) to open a world-class cellular imaging centre in Paris
The Nikon Imaging Centre (NIMCE), which was officially opened last (December 2007) month by Valerie Pecresse, French research minister, will allow cancer researchers across France to monitor live cell activity using cutting edge light microscopy and imaging equipment provided by Nikon.
This is the seventh Nikon imaging centre to be opened worldwide, and aims to support research and training, and promote cross-disciplinary collaboration and the development of innovative bio-imaging methods.
The centre will also be used as a demonstration site for the very latest Nikon equipment.
Nikon Instruments is the largest investor in the research centre, having provided nine systems, worth a total of euro1.7million.
These include: the recently launched Ti-E motorised inverted microscope for fast live cell image capture; Eclipse i-series 90i upright microscope for image processing and histology; and a BioStation IM compact cell incubation and monitoring system, ideal for long-term, time-lapse studies of live cells.
"The centre will make an important contribution to the development of cellular imaging techniques.
"We were pleased to partner with Nikon, who have collaborated with other leading organisations to launch several similar centres in the past," said Daniel Louvard, director of the Curie Institute.
Philippe Rideau, instruments division manager, Nikon France, explained at the opening ceremony that: "The Curie Institute is one of the most important research centres in Europe, and the most important cancer research institute in France.
"We are delighted to be working with them.
"Through this partnership, we are providing some of the world's leading experts on cell malignancy and growth with the tools they need to crack today's most taxing biological research problems, particularly those relating to cell malignancy and tumour growth".
The NIMCE is the second imaging centre Nikon Instruments has opened in the last six months; the company recently opened a centre in Singapore in partnership with the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC).
There are now Nikon Imaging Centres in four other countries: at Harvard University and the University of California San Francisco (USA), Hokkaido University (Japan), the University of Heidelberg (Germany), and Oxford University (UK)
