DELTAVISION OPTICAL MICROSCOPY WORKSTATION

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This proposal requests funds to purchase a deconvolution-based "DeltaVision" optical microscopy workstation, designed for highly sensitive and precise acquisition of 2- and 3-D images of fluorescently- labeled biological specimens. Our investigators at BCM are conversant with the advantages of deconvolution versus laser scanning confocal microscopy and are well poised to take advantage of the inherent attributes of this instrument. The diversity of expertise and projects among the faculty include optical and electron microscopy, molecular biology, developmental biology, genetics, cell biology and computational biology. The computationally intensive image processing involved in DeltaVision imaging is exceptionally well supported by the super computer resources of Baylor's Biomedical Computation and Visualization Laboratory, and will allow nearly live-processing of image files. This instrument will serve the research needs of multiple facility at BCM whose research demands extremely high X, Y and Z resolution digital image acquisition of live or fixed tissues or cells, and the ability to analyze the optical sections following 3D reconstruction. Moreover, the design of this system allows the collection of extremely faint signals, the ability to simultaneously collect fluorescence from up to four different channels and the opportunity to collect corresponding high-quality phase or DIC images at each focal plane. None of these capabilities are currently available to Baylor researchers. In addition to providing superior spatial resolution and sensitivity, the biomedical research projects that this new technology will support have a central theme in common: a collective effort to approach modern biological questions through the powerful combinatorial approach of molecular biology and modern digital microscopy. Projects described within this application will be able to address questions of biological structure and function at heretofore unapproachable levels of resolution. The high integrated DeltaVision workstation will allow advancement to a new level of molecular morphology that will determine where and when key molecules are functioning. The software included in this package will allow a heightened capability to understand the complex 3-D organization of biological structure from the level of a yeast cell nucleus to mammalian tissues. The instrument requested here will be a pivotal component advancing Baylor's Integrated Microscopy Core facility and serve as a shared resource throughout the Texas Medical Center, including Rice University, The University of Houston and the UT Medical School.