Neuropathology of dopamine systems in schizophrenia

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present application is a request for supplemental funding for the acquisition of some equipment and software that can improve the development and outcome of our already NIH funded grant entitled: Neuropathology of dopamine systems in schizophrenia (grant number: MH66123). In our study a considerable number of different equipment is used, some of which is almost exclusively used by personnel in Dr. Roberts laboratory (i.e. electron microscope, automated printer for electron microscopy, etc.) Other equipment is shared at MPRC (i.e. the software and microscope for stereology used in our grant). Since the submission of the original grant, the number of users and the time that this shared microscope and stereology system is available to use have decreased dramatically. Currently we are allowed to use this equipment only once a week (this includes the time for use of the microscope and also the imaging analysis software), creating a very striking delay in all the light microscopy analysis of our project. Furthermore, in the last few months our data progress indicates that the introduction of some new methodology can improve our project. In fact, we have done a preliminary study to determine if immunofluorescence techniques will be useful for our study. As it is shown in the next pages the use of immunofluorescence techniques in our project presents several advantages and also will allow us to analyze some data that would not be possible to analyze with more traditional techniques. For all these reasons in the present application we request funding for a new microscope equipped for fluorescence and stereology studies, as well as the software necessary to perform the analysis of the date obtained. This will positively impact at least 4 of our experiments proposed in the original grant. We consider that these acquisitions will considerably improve the data analysis and the outcome of our study, including a faster analysis and more accurate interpretation of the results obtained.