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

共焦显微镜升级用于发育、生理学

• 批准号: RTI-2022-00088
• 负责人: Leys, Sally
• 金额: $ 10.93万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=742219
• 关键词: Confocal; Microscope; Upgrade; Development; Physiology

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.

我们请求资助将荧光显微镜升级为共聚焦显微镜。该显微镜是在一个共同的显微镜设施，其最后的共焦停止运作超过10年前。我们是不寻常的生物学系在没有共享共聚焦显微镜，因此我们的学生和博士后在他们目前可以做的成像非常有限。共聚焦技术在过去十年中取得了显著进步，极大地提高了光路效率，提高了灵敏度并降低了其占地面积和成本。在将我们目前的荧光显微镜升级为共聚焦显微镜的过程中，我们获得了具有高效光路的最先进的扫描头和具有出色信噪比的平台，并且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，我们还能够保留设施中其他仪器上使用的相同软件，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。我们的学员是本科生，研究生（硕士和博士水平）以及博士后研究员谁持有许多奖学金，谁是良好的出版。许多人还参与了我们部门内外的外联活动。所要求的仪器将被安置在一个普通的显微镜设施中，由一名在几个不同的共聚焦平台上有超过5年经验的技术人员监督培训。今天的研究生寻求先进技术的培训，随着分子生物学的快速发展，领先的研究计划正在精确地询问基因在动物和植物组织中的表达位置。但是对于研究模式生物，共聚焦的使用已经超越了表征和静态制备，越来越多地开发和使用基因编码的报告者，将我们的工作提升到量化结果和实时跟踪仅在几年前无法访问的事件。如果没有现代显微镜，所有这些投资和培训机会都将失去，更重要的是，我们的学生在荧光报告方面的巨大创造潜力也将失去。多年来没有使用共聚焦显微镜对我们所有的团队来说都是一个重大损失，我们现在迫切需要这种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。