Combined Optical Tweezers-Fluorescence Super-Resolution Microscope for Single-Molecule Biophysical Studies

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PROJECT SUMMARY In this application, we propose to acquire a combined optical tweezers-fluorescence super-resolution microscope for single-molecule biophysical studies from LUMICKS. The LUMICKS C-Trap will be placed in a shared instrumentation facility such that it will be available for use by the entire biomedical research community at Columbia University. Consequently, the C-Trap will impact a large number of current and future NIH-funded research programs at Columbia University. Specifically, the C-Trap will be installed, housed, operated, and maintained in the Columbia University Precision Biomolecular Characterization Facility (PBCF), a university- supported, staffed, shared instrumentation facility that will provide all Columbia University researchers with efficient, low-cost access to the C-Trap. The proposed C-Trap is a state-of-the-art instrument that will be equipped with quadrupule laser tweezers, a three-wavelength, single-photon-sensitivity laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscope, and stimulated emission depletion (STED) super-resolution fluorescence microscope (i.e., a STED nanoscope), thereby enabling the broadest range of research to be accommodated. There are currently no comparable instruments anywhere at Columbia University and there are only two C-Trap instruments in the entire New York City area. These two instruments are not located in a shared instrumentation facility and are instead located in the laboratory of individual researchers, where the instruments exclusively serve the experimental needs of the individual researcher’s laboratory and are therefore rendered unavailable to outside users. Moreover, these two instruments are configured differently from the requested instrument and have limited capabilities and, thus, cannot be used to perform the experiments proposed in the current application. Successfully establishing the proposed C-Trap in the PBCF is expected to advance the aims of more than 26 NIH-funded research programs spanning many departments and schools at Columbia University and representing an extremely broad range of biochemical, biophysical, and biomedical research programs.