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Catalan Institute for Water Research

Research and Innovation for the sustainable use of water

The Microscopy Unit (MU) provides researchers and external users with the necessary equipment, technical support and specialist training to observe and analyse the microscopic structure of organisms from environmental aquatic systems, complex biological samples (such as biofilm) and water samples from reactors and pilot plants.

The Unit has several cameras attached to the equipment that allow high-quality storage of the captured images, which can later be analyzed through the installed software, allowing a wide variety of measurements and calculations.

Services

  • Detection and quantification of prokaryotic populations by labelling with specific fluorescent probes
  • Study of diatoms using the Nomarski technique (DIC)
  • Analysis and quantification of bacteria using nucleic acid staining
  • Analysis of prokaryotes in the water column without fixation
  • Analysis of micro and macroinvertebrates through visualization with a stereoscopic microscope.

Equipment

  • Inverted microscope, Eclipse Ti-S, Nikon

  • Epifluorescence microscope, Eclipse 80i, Nikon

  • Stereoscopic microscope, SMZ-1000, Nikon

Human team