Equipment for Upgrading the Optical Sectioning Microscope Facility

在此应用中，我们建议升级现有的生物光学切片显微镜（OSM）设施的部门。 我们正在申请几件设备，以便利仪器的使用，并提供新的能力，加强该设施。 OSM使用离焦光去除的计算方法来提供活体和固定标本的高分辨率3-D图像。 它的主要优点是使用低得多的照明水平，以产生高质量的图像，从而最大限度地减少对活体标本的损害。 我们关于更新设施的请求有四个主要组成部分。 首先，我们希望添加共焦和部分共焦光学OSM，因此，根据标本的灵敏度，我们可以选择将计算方法应用于非共焦，部分共焦或完全共焦的图像。 第二，我们建议增加生产视频输出的能力，使我们有一种方法来存储许多电影的3-D时间推移序列，我们自己的分析，也有一种方法来记录代表性的电影演示给研讨会的观众。 第三，我们要求作出改进，以便利我们所处理的大量数据集的储存、检索和硬拷贝输出，从而使数据更容易获得。 第四，我们寻求增加的能力，显微注射到OSM，使几种不同种类的体内注射实验可以迅速进行，所有这些改进的主要目的是使仪器更容易为用户和补救设施目前的缺点。 随着这些组件的加入，我们的OSM设施将继续处于生物成像的前沿，并在未来许多年继续促进我们的研究。

In this application, we propose to upgrade the existing Department of Biology Optical Sectioning Microscope (OSM) Facility. We are requesting several pieces of equipment that will facilitate the use of the instrument and provide new capabilities that will enhance the facility. The OSM uses the computational methods of out-of-focus light removal to provide high resolution 3-D images of both living and fixed specimens. Its main advantage over confocal microscopy is that is uses far lower levels of illumination to generate high quality images, thereby minimizing the damage to living specimens. Our request for upgrading the facility has four main components. First, we wish to add confocal and partially confocal optics to the OSM, so that depending on the sensitivity of the specimen, we may choose to apply computational methods to either non-confocal, partially confocal or fully confocal images. Second, we propose to add the capability for producing video output so that we have a means to store many movies of 3-D time-lapse sequences for our own analysis, and also a means to record representative movies for presentation to seminar audiences. Third, we request improvements that will facilitate the storage, retrieval and hard copy output of the massive data sets that we work with, so that the data are more easily accessible. Fourth, we seek to add the capability for microinjection to the OSM, so that several different sorts of in vivo injection experiments can be performed expeditiously, The main purpose of all of these enhancements is to make the instrument more accessible to the users and to remedy current shortcomings in the facility. With the addition of these components, our OSM facility will remain on the forefront of biological imaging and continue to facilitate our research for many years to come.