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

科罗拉多州立大学（CSU）获得了一种显微镜系统，该系统将多种技术结合在一个平台上。这台仪器将被安置在一个设施内，使用户能够24小时安全地使用，并将由一名工作人员科学家维护。该仪器将被包括在每年为大约100名学生提供服务的本科实验课程的新模块中。学生在研究生课程的显微镜也将介绍仪器。通过将该仪器纳入显微镜成像网络（MIN），该仪器将提供给CSU内外的广泛用户群。该网络为新仪器用户提供了一个试点赠款计划。这些试点拨款支持用户培训和初步数据采集在这和其他显微镜仪器在科罗拉多州立大学。该仪器将结合扫描探针和光学技术。扫描探针技术能够以非常高的分辨率对样品的地形特征和机械性能进行成像。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）和光激活（PA）。该仪器将被配置为对包括活细胞在内的湿样品进行成像。将这些根本不同但互补的技术结合在一个平台上，可以同时在完全相同的视野内对多个样品特性进行询问。因此，用一种技术进行的特定测量（如机械性能）可以与另一种技术测量的特征（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（科罗拉多州立大学、科罗拉多大学丹佛分校和丹佛大学）的十个学术部门的19名研究人员组成。这些研究人员将使用该仪器进行跨学科和合作研究项目，包括生物化学和生物物理学研究，以及生物医学和组织工程应用新材料的开发。

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.