MRI: Acquisition of a Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Microscope for Nanoscopic Resolution of Biological Samples

加州大学洛杉矶分校化学系将从主要研究仪器(MRI)计划获得这一奖项，获得受激发射耗尽共聚焦激光扫描显微镜(STED-CLSM)。所要求的显微镜在焦平面上显示分辨率低至28 nm，比传统光学显微镜提高了10倍。该仪器将用于开发多颜色的无机、稳定的量子棒作为新型的STED探针，破译染色质的结构及其在细胞中的染色体包装，研究细胞信号、病毒和细菌感染途径、神经可塑性和许多其他重要的生物学问题。STED显微镜提供了电子显微镜的替代，因为它利用了荧光显微镜的公认优势(灵敏度、分子特异性、遗传编码的探针、活细胞、易于操作)。STED的概念依靠一种纯粹的物理现象，受激发射，再加上智能光学，来锐化共焦激发光点，产生更详细的纳米分辨率图像。STED纳米显微镜弥合了电子显微镜和衍射限制光学显微镜之间的鸿沟，应该是解开细胞生物学中结构和功能之间关系的有力工具。事实上，许多突出的问题存在于纳米尺度，如染色体的组织，大型蛋白质复合体和病毒结构的组装，细胞器结构，以及在非生物纳米尺度装置的应用。

The Chemistry Department at the University of California-Los Angeles will acquire a stimulated emission depletion confocal laser scanning microscope (STED-CLSM) with this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program. The requested microscope displays resolution down to 28 nm in the focal plane, a 10x improvement over conventional light microscopes. The instrument will be used to develop multi-color inorganic, stable, quantum rods as novel STED probes, decipher the structure of chromatin and its packaging into chromosomes in the cell, study cell signaling, viral and bacterial infection pathways, neural plasticity and many other important biological questions.STED microscopy provides an alternative to electron microscopy because it capitalizes on the well-established advantages of fluorescence microscopy (sensitivity, molecular specificity, genetically encoded probes, live cells, ease of operation). The STED concept relies on a purely physical phenomenon, stimulated emission, coupled with smart optics, to sharpen the confocal excitation spot, resulting in much more detailed, nanometer resolved images. Bridging the gap between electron and diffraction-limited light microscopy, a STED nanoscope should be a powerful tool for unraveling the relationship between structure and function in cell biology. Indeed, many outstanding problems lay in the nanometer scale, such as the organization of chromosomes, the assembly of large protein complexes and viral structures, organelle structures, as well as applications to non-biological nano-scale devices.