High-throughout fluorescent imaging system: From cell biology to population ecology

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We are applying for the urgent replacement of a high-end Nikon Ti image acquisition system with necessary upgrades. Two highly productive research programs and at least 7 laboratories with multiple students depend on the proposed equipment and have been unable to complete essential high-throughput multi-dimensional assays due to A) limitations with the existing equipment and B) mechanical failures of the existing equipment due to aging. We therefore propose to purchase a highly customizable high content imaging platform from Nikon, designed to serve the immediate needs of two laboratories in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph and 7 laboratories in the College of Biological Sciences. Research in these laboratories covers several levels of organization (molecules, cells, embryos and larvae) and approaches (population ecology, cell biology, molecular biology and developmental biology) and there is an urgent need for all laboratories for high throughput acquisitions. Specifically, the applicant’s ongoing research programs and newly established collaborations with industry and other laboratories require the urgent implementation of high content acquisition systems, a task that cannot be handled by the existing microscope. Since the previous unsuccessful submission of this application last year, the acquisition of the new microscope system has become even more urgent due to repeated technical failures of the existing system and the inability to implement novel high-throughput protocols required for ongoing projects. The core imaging facility at the University of Guelph is not setup to accommodate proposed operating procedures for automated workflows as their microscopy systems generally consist of highly specialized confocal microscopes without high throughput capacity. Furthermore the existing systems can only handle the needs of a few labs until capacity is reached. Without the proposed infrastructure important momentum and opportunity will be lost and ongoing work in the Heyland and Fryxell labs will be stalled until new infrastructure is available.