Stimulated emission depletion microscope

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Understanding the dynamics and the spatio-temporal organization of factors involved in essential cellular processes at the nanoscale has become possible thanks to the advancement of super-resolution imaging. Progress had been hampered by the difficulty to image molecular processes in the crowded cellular environment using standard diffraction limited imaging techniques, but the availability of commercial microscopes is making super-resolution techniques available to the broader biology community. Additionally, the recent implementation of multi-colour super-resolution imaging techniques now allows us to follow these processes in an intact living cell, avoiding artifacts due to fixation. We are here proposing the purchase of a commercial stimulated emission depletion microscope (STED) to address some of these key questions about Golgi biology, the role of the cytoskeleton in neuronal function, cellular signaling networks, antigen presentation, T cell activation and vesicle recycling at the neuronal presynapse. The nanoscope will require multi-color 3D STED capabilities to gain insights into the complex cellular architecture. Additionally, we will implement multi-color live-cell STED imaging as a routine tool to explore intra-cellular dynamic processes at the nanoscale.