Multiphoton Confocal

摘要 多光子显微镜核心设施的目标是在Cobre计划的前两个阶段启动的项目上取得进展，并将该设施的使用扩大到需要多光子显微镜以实现新应用、但对这些技术的经验有限的研究人员。Cobre的研究人员与神经科学卓越中心(NCE)的其他教员合作，利用我们的多光子成像能力发现了毛细胞突触，并发现了海马区树突固有和突触特性的可塑性。开创性的多光子成像设备及其应用吸引了包括来自该中心和杜兰大学医学院在内的外部科学家的合作。这些不同的项目说明了可以通过有组织的协作和核心基础设施来考虑的应用。虽然将多光子成像扩展到大新奥尔良地区的更多研究人员，但核心最终将吸引足够的新资金，这除了医学院的机构承诺外，将使核心在第三阶段资金结束时自给自足。这一核心的三个具体目标是：1)提供基础设施，以维持现有的将核心列为NIH应用中的基本设备的赠款项目；2)利用多光子设施来实施新的研究项目；使研究人员之间能够进行合作；在神经科学中创建新的成像应用；并帮助研究人员获得个人拨款申请的初步数据；3)通过继续开发包括光遗传学和活体成像在内的新能力来开发新的研究战略。

Abstract The goals for the Multiphoton Microscopy Core Facility are to make advancements on projects that were initiated during the first two phases of the COBRE program and to expand the use of the facility to investigators that require multiphoton microscopy for novel applications, but have limited experience with these techniques. COBRE investigators, in collaboration with other faculty at the Neuroscience Center of Excellence (NCE) have used our multiphoton imaging capabilities to make discoveries in hair cell synapses and plasticity of intrinsic and synaptic properties of dendrites in the hippocampus. The pioneering multiphoton imaging equipment and its applications attracted collaborations that included scientists from outside the Center and University, including Tulane University Medical School. These diverse projects illustrate the applications that can be considered with organized collaboration and core infrastructure. While extending the availability of multiphoton imaging to more researchers in the greater New Orleans area, ultimately the core will attract sufficient new funding, which, in addition to the institutional commitment of the School of Medicine, will make the core self-sufficient by the end of Phase III funding. The three specific aims of this core are: 1) To provide the infrastructure to sustain existing grant projects that listed the core as essential equipment in their NIH applications; 2) To utilize the multiphoton facility to implement new research projects; enable collaborations between investigators; create new imaging applications in neuroscience; and help investigators obtain preliminary data for individual grant applications; 3) To develop new research strategies by continuing to develop novel capabilities including optogenetics and in vivo imaging.