HIGH RESOLUTION CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY IN LIVING CELLS

该项目的目标是在西北医学院建立一个多用户设施，允许在活细胞中进行高速共聚焦显微镜，在那里可以维持生理条件，并可以进行细胞电生理测量。这一设施旨在满足多名研究人员的需求，他们得到国家卫生研究院的资助，并需要所请求的仪器的能力，以促进其正在进行的研究的具体目标。在这项技术中实现的方法目前在每个实验室都是单独可用的。医学院正在提供广泛的财政支助，这体现在一项费用分摊安排上，其中包括总共210,250美元，用于翻修专用场地和支付为期5年的部分业务费用。该设施最初将支持美国国立卫生研究院资助的七个独立研究项目的具体目标。这些项目的共同目标是研究细胞信号的调控，包括在完整细胞中测量细胞内钙、特定蛋白质的靶向和定位、蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用和分泌调节。大多数实验将在旨在尽可能保持正常生理状态的条件下进行。到目前为止，由于无法测量细胞底层的亚细胞事件，用户组的个别成员的进展受到限制。现在，先进的共聚焦成像技术将允许应用先进的共聚焦成像技术来直接研究电生理特性和跨膜信号事件与细胞内功能调节的关系。此外，该设施将极大地加强对学生和博士后研究员的研究培训，也将对临床医生科学家的研究培训产生重大影响。因此，这一设施很可能对医学院的研究和教学任务做出重大贡献。

The goal of this project is to establish a multi-user facility at Northwestern Medical School that will allow high speed confocal microscopy in living cells where physiological conditions can be maintained and cellular electrophysiological measurements can be made. This facility is designed to meet the needs of multiple investigators who are supported by funded NIH grants and who need the capabilities of the requested instrument in order to further the specific aims of their ongoing research. The approaches made possible in this techniques currently available in each lab separately. Extensive financial support is being provided by the Medical School as demonstrated by a cost-sharing arrangement which includes a total of $210,250 both for renovations of dedicated space and for partial operating costs for a period of 5 years. This facility initially will support the specific aims of seven separate NIH-funded research projects. These projects share a common goal of investigating regulation of cell signaling, including measurements in intact cells of intracellular Ca, targeting and localization of specific proteins, protein-protein interactions and regulation of secretion. Most experiments will be performed under conditions intended to maintain as normal a physiological state as possible. To date, progress by individual members of the user group has been limited by the inability to measure subcellular events underlying cell will be made possible will now allow the application of advanced confocal imaging technology to the direct study of the relationships of electrophysiological properties and transmembrane signaling events to the intracellular regulation of cell function. In addition, this facility will greatly enhance the research training on students and post-doctoral fellows and will also have a significant impact on the research training of clinician scientists. Consequently, this facility is likely to make a major contribution to both the research and teaching missions of the Medical School.