Instrument Development for Three-Dimensional Fluorescence Microscopy

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This proposal requests support for the purchase and development of several pieces of instrument which will be used to significantly advance a current research effort supported by the National Institutes of Health in the area of novel three-dimensional (3-D) microscopy. Specifically, the 3-D microscopy system currently being investigated will be developed into a high-resolution fluorescence microscopy system with real-time reconstruction capability by acquiring an Argon laser, an x-y computer-controlled scanning system, and a workstation. The Argon laser at 470 nm extends the microscopy system to be able to operate in a fluorescent mode, thereby potentially making the system a very useful and powerful tool in many branches of biology and the life sciences. The x-y scanning system allows the microscopy system to perform specimen-scanning instead of optical beam-scanning, thereby ensuring that the resolution and contrast are identical across the entire field of view. The workstation will improve the speed of the analysis of the 3-D data obtained from the microscopy system by an order of magnitude, thereby making it possible for real-time 3-D data manipulation and image presentation. The results of the proposed instrumentation development activity could lead to better 3-D information processing in areas such as real-time image processing, microscopy, and data storage and acquisition in the life sciences.