MRI: Acquisition of Combined Spinning Disc Confocal/Atomic Force Microscopy System

科罗拉多州立大学(CSU)获奖，以获得在单一平台上结合多种技术的显微系统。这台仪器将放置在一个设施中，使用户能够安全地24小时访问，并将由一名科学家工作人员进行维护。该仪器将被纳入一门本科实验室课程的新模块，该课程每年为约100名学生提供服务。显微镜研究生课程的学生也将被介绍这种仪器。该仪器将通过将其纳入显微镜成像网络(MIN)而向CSU内外的广泛用户群提供。该网络为新仪器用户提供了一项试点资助计划。这些试点拨款支持CSU对该显微镜仪器和其他显微镜仪器的用户培训和初步数据获取。该仪器将结合扫描探头和光学技术。扫描探头技术能够以非常高的分辨率成像样品的地形特征和机械性能。光学技术包括旋转圆盘共聚焦显微镜、光漂白后荧光恢复(FRAP)和光活化(PA)。该仪器将被配置为对包括活细胞在内的湿样本进行成像。在单一平台上结合这些完全不同但互补的技术，可以在完全相同的视场中同时询问多个样品的性质。因此，用一种技术进行的具体测量(例如，机械性能)可以与用另一种技术测量的特征(例如，化学官能团或生物结构的位置)相关联。随着时间的推移，可以监测这些相关性和空间组织的变化，以观察生物现象。最初的用户组由来自三所大学(CSU、科罗拉多大学丹佛分校和丹佛大学)的十个学术部门的19名调查人员组成。这些研究人员将使用该仪器进行跨学科和协作研究项目，包括生化和生物物理研究，以及开发用于生物医学和组织工程应用的新材料。

An award is made to Colorado State University (CSU) to acquire a microscopy system that combines multiple techniques in a single platform. This instrument will be housed in a facility that enables secure 24-hour access for users and will be maintained by a staff scientist. The instrument will be included in a new module for an undergraduate lab course that serves about 100 students annually. Students in a graduate course on microscopy will also be introduced to the instrument. The instrument will be made available to a broad user base both inside and outside of CSU, by including it in a Microscopy Imaging Network (MIN). This network has a pilot grant program for new instrument users. These pilot grants support user training and preliminary data acquisition on this and other microscopy instruments at CSU. The instrument will combine scanning probe and optical techniques. The scanning probe techniques enable imaging of the topographical features and mechanical properties of samples at very high resolution. The optical techniques include spinning disc confocal microscopy, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), and photoactivation (PA). The instrument will be configured to perform imaging of wet samples including live cells. Combining these fundamentally different yet complementary techniques on a single platform enables interrogation of multiple sample properties simultaneously and in the exact same field of view. Therefore specific measurements made with one technique (e.g. mechanical properties) can be correlated with features (e.g. location of chemical functional groups or biological structures) measured by another technique. Changes in these correlations and spatial organization can be monitored over time to observe biological phenomena. The initial user group consists of 19 investigators in ten academic departments from three universities (CSU, University of Colorado at Denver, and University of Denver). These investigators will use the instrument for interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects including biochemical and biophysical studies and for the development of new materials for biomedical and tissue engineering applications.