MRI Consortium: Acquisition of a Leica TCS SP8 STED 3X Super Resolution microscope

伦斯勒理工学院(RPI)被授予购买一台超分辨率显微镜(徕卡STED)，该显微镜将作为纽约首都地区的超分辨率中心。这个项目将影响我们社会的许多层面。首先，关于STED显微镜及其应用的信息将被纳入几门课程(生物物理学方法BCBP4800-RPI；Bio513光学显微镜的现代使用--纽约州立大学；生物成像AMC 608；学习、设计、教授纳米技术RPI MTLE 4960；显微镜和分析“工具”--沃兹沃斯中心)。它将是CBIS年度实践讲习班的一部分。它将是所有四个机构生物科学研讨会系列的一部分。其次，它将被纳入社区外联计划，以鼓励学生进入STEM领域：黑人家庭技术意识日；高中暑期研究计划和LSAMP暑期研究计划；伦斯勒大学一年一度的科学、技术、艺术和建筑计划，接触有才华的未被充分代表的少数族裔和年轻女性。第三，有关这项技术及其实现的研究的信息，包括在非传统领域，将通过BioconneX在该地区的生物技术社区中传播，这是一个致力于发展纽约首都地区研究、教育和企业之间的伙伴关系的网络。第四，RPI的其中一个“公共利益研究论坛”将致力于STED，并将在这项尖端技术、诺贝尔奖和对普通公众的影响之间建立联系。该项目的智力价值是通过应用模拟排放消耗(STED)显微镜实现的研究活动。STED显微镜通过选择性地使荧光团失活来产生超分辨率图像，最大限度地减少了照明面积，从而绕过了传统光学显微镜的衍射限制。显微镜将使跨学科研究成为可能：来自四个机构的25名研究人员强烈支持这一应用，他们代表了14个不同的部门/中心。研究领域包括细胞黏附和细胞渗透性研究、STEM细胞研究、平滑肌细胞发育、细胞内分子相互作用、内皮细胞发育，以及小型中央突触突触前终末的功能特征。对这项技术的迫切需求和对该仪器的多样化研究应用表明，超分辨率显微镜将成为一种非凡的地区性资源。使用STED成像积累的知识将对大纽约首都地区的生物科学、材料表征和组织工程领域产生巨大的积极影响。

An award is made to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to purchase a super-resolution microscope (Leica STED) that will serve as the super-resolution center in the New York Capital Region. This project will impact many layers of our society. First, information about STED microscopy and its applications will be incorporated in several courses (Methods in Biophysics BCBP4800-RPI; Bio513 Modern Use of Light Microscopy-SUNY; Bioimaging AMC 608; Learn, Design, Teach Nanotechnology RPI MTLE 4960; Microscopy and Analysis "Tools"-Wadsworth Center). It will be part of the CBIS Annual Hands-On Workshops. It will be part of the Biological Sciences Seminar Series at all four institutions. Second, it will be incorporated in community outreach programs to encourage students into STEM fields: Black Family Technology Awareness Day; the High School Summer Research Program and the LSAMP Summer Research Program; the annual Science, Technology, Arts, and Architecture at Rensselaer Program that reaches out to talented underrepresented minorities and young women. Third, information about this technology and the research that it enables, including in nontraditional fields, will be distributed throughout the region's biotechnology community via Bioconnex, a network dedicated to the development of partnerships between research, education and business in the NY Capital region. Fourth, one of the RPI "Public Interest Research Forums" will be dedicated to STED and will establish the connection between this cutting-edge technology, the Nobel prize and implications to the general public.The intellectual merit of this project is the research activities that are enabled through the application of simulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. STED microscopy creates super-resolution images by the selective deactivation of fluorophores, minimizing the area of illumination, and thus, bypassing the diffraction limit of conventional light microscopy. The microscope will enable very interdisciplinary research: 25 investigators across four institutions are strongly supporting this application, representing fourteen different Departments/Centers. Areas of research enabled include the study of cellular adherens and cellular permeability, STEM cell research, smooth muscle cell development, intracellular molecular interactions, endothelial cell development, and functional characterization of presynaptic terminals at small central synapses. The critical need for this technology and the diverse research applications for the instrument demonstrate that the super resolution microscope will become an extraordinary regional resource. Knowledge accumulated as a result of using STED imaging will have a tremendous positive impact in the fields of biological sciences, materials characterization and tissue engineering in the greater New York Capital Region.