Area Code of Practice
Confocal microscopy room
(Philip Ullmann wing, 1st floor, room 153)
Written by Bertrand Vernay, 26 July 2010
Please read the Confocal Facility Risk Assessment (on the Confocal facility
website, two copies kept in the confocal room).
An approved risk assessment must be available for all works conducted in the
confocal room. Any procedures not covered by the Confocal Facility Risk
Assessment must be covered in your project risk assessment and a copy given to
Bertrand.
Access to the microscopes
 Only staff trained by Bertrand can use the confocal microscopes.
 Access is from 8:00 am to 10:30 pm, 7 days a week. Bertrand is available
for help between 9 am and 6 pm, Monday to Friday (ext. 2224).
 No food and drink are allowed in the confocal room.
 Booking is made online through WORMS.
 If you need to cancel less than 6 hours before your booking, please contact
Bertrand.
 The facility provides immersion liquids for objectives and lens tissues for
objectives cleaning. If the stocks are low, please notify Bertrand (ext.
2224).
 Bring your own CD or DVD to save your data. NO USB KEY OR
EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ARE ALLOWED.
Using the microscopes
 The start-up and turn off procedures must be followed. The procedures are
found in the blue folders for each system. Check each time you use the
system as the procedure may change following maintenance or upgrade.
 Any problems must be immediately reported to Bertrand (ext. 2224). Email
me if you cannot reach me (b.vernay@ich.ucl.ac.uk).
 No hardware manipulation on the microscope is allowed (e.g. objectives,
filters replacements)
Leaving the room
 Clean the immersion objectives with Lens tissue and 70% alcohol only.
 Ask Bertrand if the dry objectives do need to be clean.
 Don’t use lens tissue for cleaning your samples, use regular tissues.
 Take away your waste (sharps, bottles, Petri dishes, etc.). Anything left in
the facility will be discarded.
 Turn off the system. Leave the system on standby if another member of
staff is going use it in less than 2 hours.
Data storage
 Data are save on the D:/Users/”your_name_your_unit”. Data saved in any
other locations may be deleted without prior warning
 Your data are not safe on the computer hard drive. If space is needed, the
oldest dataset will be deleted without warning.
 Save your data on CD or DVD. Do not use portable devices: USB keys,
external hard drives as they may infect the system with viruses.