Confocal Microscope for Core Imaging Facility

描述(申请人提供)：生物标本的成像已成为生物医学科学中日益重要的工具，其中对活标本和多个荧光团成像的能力尤为重要。我们建议购买蔡司LSM510共聚焦显微镜系统，安装在犹他大学医学院的细胞成像设备中。这种共焦将取代过时的入门级共焦(奥林巴斯FVX)，并通过增加广泛的激发波长选择以及在多个发射滤光器之间快速切换来提高设施的能力。环境控制的标本室和机动的X-Y工作台将特别方便活细胞成像实验。犹他大学目前还没有具备这套功能的仪器。 核心细胞成像设施位于医学院的中心位置，由一名具有博士后经验的全职博士主任监督。在他的指导下，该设施取得了极大的成功，大量使用了现有的共焦显微镜(&gt；每周35小时/显微镜)。除了维护显微镜和管理显微镜的使用外，主任还向用户提供培训和支持。此外，他每年都和首席调查员一起教授一门显微镜教学课程。有一个强有力的机构承诺提供核心显微镜设施。犹他大学为设施主任的工资提供全额资金，并保证服务合同的成本。该仪器的使用将受到一个监督委员会的监督，该委员会将与一个监督医学院所有核心设施的委员会联系。 该仪器将主要服务于医学院4个不同部门的7个主要用户。这些研究人员由14个目前的R01、P01或R37 NIH拨款资助，正在研究包括培养细胞、线虫和斑马鱼在内的系统。所有这些项目都涉及活细胞成像，并将显著受益于 拟议的文书。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Imaging of biological specimens has become an increasingly important tool in biomedical science, with the abilities to image live specimens and multiple fluorophores being especially important. We propose to purchase a Zeiss LSM510 confocal microscope system to be housed in the Cell Imaging Facility of the University of Utah School of Medicine. This confocal would replace an obsolete entry-level confocal (Olympus FVX) and improve the capabilities of the facility by adding a wide choice of excitation wavelengths, as well as fast switching between multiple emission filters. An environmentally controlled specimen chamber and motorized X-Y stage would particularly facilitate live-cell imaging experiments. No instrument with this set of features is currently available anywhere at the University of Utah. The core Cell Imaging Facility is centrally located in the School of Medicine, and is overseen by a fulltime Ph.D. director with postdoctoral experience. Under his direction the facility has been highly successful, with heavy use of the existing confocal microscopes (>35 hours/week/microscope). The director provides training and support to users in addition to maintaining the microscopes and administering their use. Furthermore, every year he teaches a didactic microscopy course together with the Principal Investigator. There is a strong institutional commitment to providing core microscopy facilities. The University of Utah fully funds the facility director's salary, and guarantees the cost of service contracts. The instrument's use would be monitored by an oversight committee, which would liaise with a committee that oversees all of the School of Medicine's core facilities. This instrument would primarily serve 7 major users from 4 different departments in the School of Medicine. These researchers are funded by 14 current R01, P01 or R37 NIH grants and are studying systems including cultured cells, C. elegans, and zebrafish. All of these projects involve live-cell imaging, and would benefit significantly from the improved flexibility in excitation and emission wavelengths offered by the proposed instrument.