Confocal Core Facility for Vision Researchers

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R24 Grant is submitted to establish a state-of-the-art Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope Core Facility for vision researchers at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU). It will provide a well-established group of NEI-funded vision researchers at TJU the means to perform cutting edge fluorescence microscopy analysis of both fixed and live cells and tissues, greatly enhancing their vision research programs. This facility will also serve collaborators and colleagues of the NEI-funded investigators who have an interest in vision biology. It is hoped that the advanced technology offered by this facility will attract additional investigators at TJU to apply their knowledge to questions in vision research, either independently or in collaboration with the core group of investigators. The confocal microscope we propose to purchase, the Zeiss LSM 510 META, well addresses the needs of the vision investigators at TJU to examine the complex and dynamic relationships between proteins at the cellular, subcellular and molecular level. It offers the unique capability of emission fingerprinting which can separate up to 8 different fluorescent markers despite overlap of their emission spectra, thereby permitting analysis of the molecular relationships of distinct cellular components. This microscope makes it simple to perform dynamic FRAP, FLIP and FRET analyses. It can resolve rapid cellular processes and allows for quantitative analysis of image series. It is expected that this confocal facility not only will enhance the current research goals of this group of vision researchers but also provide new avenues for their research projects not before possible. Access to this confocal microscope should allow this dynamic group of vision researchers, who have already provided many important contributions to their specific fields, to both enhance and expand their research directions and to increase their productivity, without technology being a limitation. It is our long term goal, as we reach the required nucleus of NEI-funded investigators, to expand this facility into a larger Core Facility for vision researchers at TJU and Wills Eye Hospital. We envision this core as providing not only additional technologies that will enhance the research activity of these investigators, but also to provide a central site that will foster intellectual interactions between the investigators and lead to even greater cooperation and collaboration within the TJU vision community.