Zeiss LSM 980 Confocal Microscope System

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Project Summary/Abstract The Life Science Initiative and the RNA Institute of the State University of New York at Albany (UAlbany) represent a regional hub for multidisciplinary and collaborative research by undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research staff, and faculty. This highly interactive institution operates on a dynamic collaborative approach toward scientific discoveries and high-quality education. To continue our faculty’s historic interdisciplinary collaborative research ventures through our shared core research facilities, we have identified an urgent need for a Zeiss LSM 980 confocal microscope system with the latest Airyscan 2 technology. This advanced quantitative fluorescence microscopy is capable of fast image acquisition with ultrahigh spatial resolution and multispectral imaging at high spectral resolution. Acquisition of this advanced imaging platform will facilitate a wide variety of research programs across our major and minor user groups encompassing diverse fields including stem cell biology; cell-cell communication in organ development; neuronal development and behavior; microbial communities in human health; gene regulation and transcriptional activation; epitranscriptomic regulation by viral infection, environmental, and physical stress; protein biosynthesis and translational regulation. The most advanced imaging systems currently available at UAlbany, the conventional confocal Zeiss LSM710 fluorescence microscopy and two-photon fluorescence microscope, lack sufficient resolution, sensitivity and speed to support these multidisciplinary cutting-edge research programs. Our major users, in particular, require the Zeiss 980 superior resolution and imaging capacity to answer critical research questions that are central to their research programs, including: 1) understanding the interactions between niche cells and stem cell daughters responsible for cell differentiation; 2) defining the cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions that regulate organ-formation and regeneration in disease; 3) understanding the development and regeneration of sensory neurons and GnRH-1 neurons in homeostasis and disease, and 4) defining systems level structure-function relationships in the oral microbiome. The imaging system is also critical to support the diverse research programs of our many minor users to acquire multispectral data, high resolution images, and fast time-lapse images to answer critical research questions. The excellent upgrade capabilities of this system will enable our program’s major and minor users as well as the broader research community of New York’s capital region to meet the imaging research needs of their cutting-edge research programs.