The Dynamic Embryo Imaging Platform

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Understanding the biology of the cell and its component parts has always been the key goal in life science and medicine. Advances in microscopy are profoundly changing the way cells, sub-cellular structures and tissues can be studied. For a research intensive institution, such as UCL, to remain a competitive leader in biomedical sciences, it is essential to adopt transformative imaging technologies. Furthering our understanding of health and diseases requires a deep knowledge of the cell, its constituents and their development from very early stages of life. How to image intact, large-scale, live organisms at high spatial and temporal resolution with multiple fluorophores/reporters without phototoxcity or photobleaching with detectors of suitable sensitivity to capture low signal intensity remains a key challenge. UCL's international reputation as a key contributor in bioscience/biomedical discoveries has, in part, been successful because of it's sustained commitment to be an early adopter of new, transformative technologies, by investment of capital and resources. One main path toward this goal is to image the behavior and functional properties of cells over time. This must be done with equipment that is capable of capturing images with sufficient fine detail and at very high speed so that, hitherto, unknown dynamic processes can be discovered and studied. Lightsheet imaging technology is particularly suited to the study of key events during embryogenesis, especially fast cellular events, in part because of its ability to scan through living tissue and construct three-dimensional images of developing organisms at high speed. Advanced optical techniques, such as lightsheet microscopy allow for such dynamic studies while also allowing researchers to manipulate cellular functions. The addition of this technology to UCL core Imaging faculty will give researches access to capabilities such as:a) Rapid feature tracking to study intracellular process, cell migration and embryo development.b) Address optical scattering problems that are associated with other imaging techniques and allow imaging deep into thick samples.c) Rapid image capture of cell signalling events such as calcium imaging, deep into whole embryos regions such as the CNSd) To detect molecular interaction events within and between cells in live tissues and whole organisms such as zebra fish embryos.The main co-applicants on this proposal are, therefore, research groups at UCL whose focus is on aspects of embryo development trying to elucidate the fundamental processes and key events/factors that underlie organismal development and in health disease. They represent some of the major research figures at UCL, whose research is extensively supported through BBSRC, MRC, CRUK and Wellcome Trust grants. In addition, the microscope will be accessible to a large number of diverse research projects addressing many outstanding questions relating to embryonic development, cell biology and neurobiology. The requested funds will enable us to obtain a one of the leading Lightsheet microscope that will significantly enhance our research capabilities and lead to new scientific discoveries.