Confocal Microscope Upgrade for Development, Physiology & Evo-Devo Studies

我们请求资助将荧光显微镜升级为共聚焦显微镜。这台显微镜是在一个普通的显微镜设备中，它的最后一次共聚焦在10多年前停止工作。作为一个生物系，我们没有共享共聚焦显微镜是不寻常的，因此我们的学生和博士后在成像方面非常有限。共聚焦技术在过去十年中取得了显著的进步，大大提高了光路效率，提高了灵敏度，减少了占地面积和成本。在将我们目前的荧光显微镜升级到共聚焦时，我们获得了最先进的扫描头，具有高效的光路和具有优异信噪比的平台，我们利用了当前系统的许多部分，包括镜头和相机。在这次升级中，我们还能够在设施的其他仪器上使用相同的软件，这将增加不同用户的培训机会。我们的团队包括研究各种生物的研究小组，从真菌、植物、海绵到果蝇和脊椎动物。培养对象包括本科生、研究生（硕士、博士）以及获得多项奖学金并发表多篇论文的博士后。许多人还参与了我们部门内外的推广活动。所要求的仪器将被安置在一个共同的显微镜设施中，培训由一名在几个不同共聚焦平台上拥有5年以上经验的技术人员监督。今天的研究生寻求先进技术方面的培训，随着分子生物学的快速发展，领先的研究项目正在精确地询问基因在动植物组织中的表达位置。但对于模式生物的研究，共聚焦的使用已经超越了特征化和静态准备，越来越多地发展和使用基因编码的报告器，将我们的工作提升到量化结果和实时跟踪事件，这在几年前是无法实现的。没有现代显微镜，所有这些投资和培训机会都失去了，更重要的是，我们的学生在荧光记者方面的巨大潜力也失去了。多年来没有使用共聚焦显微镜是我们所有团队的重大损失，我们现在迫切需要这台仪器来继续培训我们的学生和同事进行高质量的显微镜研究。

We request funding to upgrade a fluorescence microscope to a confocal microscope. The microscope is in a common microscopy facility whose last confocal stopped functioning over 10 years ago. We are unusual as a Department of Biology in not having a shared confocal microscope and consequently our students and postdocs are extremely limited in the imaging they can currently do. Confocal technology has advanced significantly over the last decade with vastly improved light path efficiency which has increased sensitivity and reduced its footprint and cost. In upgrading our current fluorescent microscope to a confocal we gain access to a state-of-the-art scan head with highly efficient light path and a platform with excellent signal to noise ratio, and we take advantage of many parts of the current system including lenses and cameras. In this upgrade we are also able to keep the same software used on other instruments in the facility, which will enhance training opportunities for diverse users. Our team includes research groups studying a wide range of organisms from fungi, plants, sponges, to fruit fly and vertebrates. Our trainees are undergraduates, graduate students (Masters and Doctoral level) as well as postdoctoral fellows who hold many scholarships and who are well-published. Many are also involved in outreach within and outside of our department. The requested instrument will be housed in a common microscopy facility where training is overseen by a technician with over 5 years of experience on several different confocal platforms.  Graduate students today seek training in advanced techniques, and with rapid advances in molecular biology leading research programs are asking precisely where genes are expressed in animal and plant tissues. But for studying model organisms, the use of confocal has gone beyond characterizing and static preparations, more-and-more to developing and using genetically encoded reporters that elevate our work into quantifying outcomes and live-tracking of events that were inaccessible only years ago. Without contemporary microscopy all those investments and training opportunities are lost, and more importantly, our students' great potential to be inventive with fluorescent reporters is also lost. Not having had access to a confocal microscope for years has been a major loss to all of our groups and we now urgently need this instrument to continue training our students and associates in high-quality microscopy research.