Atomic force microscope integrated with an inverted optical microscope

原子力/荧光耦合显微镜为以高空间和时间分辨率分析生物过程提供了非凡的可能性。杜伊斯堡-埃森大学(UDE)目前还没有这种现代技术，它的建立不仅是可取的，而且对于开发高质量的研究项目甚至是必要的。目前，生物系只有一台原子力显微镜，而且UDE的其他小组也可以使用。虽然该仪器在纳米结构的形貌表征方面具有优异的性能，但它不适合于分析更大的生物样品，如细胞，其低的时间分辨率严重限制了对活样品中生物过程的实时研究。这里应用的耦合原子力/荧光显微镜将提供满足这一要求所需的空间和时间分辨率，通过将地形/力信号与光学读出相结合，还提供了研究细胞表面和内部的独特可能性。在过去的几年里，UDE生物系对单细胞或单粒子级别的高分辨率技术的需求大大增加，特别是由于DFG成功地资助了儿童权利委员会倡议，并随后在杜伊斯堡-埃森大学的生物学家和化学家之间建立了具有挑战性的合作项目。因此，这种工具将提供必要的技术工具，以便以适当的方式面对这些项目，目的是进行高质量的研究。

Coupled atomic force/fluorescence microscopy offers extraordinary possibilities to analyze biological processes at a high spatial and temporal resolution. Such a modern technique is at the moment not available within the University Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and its establishment is not only desirable but even necessary for the development of high-quality research projects. Currently, there is only one atomic force microscope available in the Faculty of Biology and accessible to other groups of the UDE. Although of excellent performance for topographical characterization of nanostructures, this instrument is not suitable for analysis of larger biological samples, such as cells, and its low temporal resolution severely limits the study of biological processes in live samples and in real-time. The coupled atomic force/fluorescence microscope applied here would provide the spatial and temporal resolution necessary to satisfy this request, offering also the unique possibility to investigate both the surface and interior of cells, by coupling the topographical/force signal with an optical readout. In the past few years, the demand on high-resolution techniques at the single-cell or single-particle level has tremendously increased within the Faculty of Biology of the UDE, particularly thanks to the successful DFG-funding of the CRC initiative and the consequent establishment of challenging cooperation projects among biologists and chemists of the University Duisburg-Essen. For this reason, such an instrument will provide the technological tools necessary to face these projects in a suitable manner, with the aim of performing high-quality research.