Confocal laser scanning microscope with photon-counting and lifetime measuring capabilities

在波茨坦大学理学院（例如生物化学和生物学研究所）进行的研究活动的重要部分通常需要应用荧光显微镜。具体地说，共聚焦荧光显微镜经常用于研究活生物体中的动态亚细胞过程。波茨坦大学目前拥有五台共焦显微镜，这些共焦显微镜由ca. 15个研究小组以分散的方式。其中三台显微镜预计将在未来几年内退役，从2023年开始，因为供应商不会保证这些旧型号的维修。 出于这个原因，我们建议用一种新的共聚焦激光扫描显微镜取代其中一种显微镜，该显微镜配备有多个光子计数探测器，在光谱的红外区域也很敏感，以及一个共振扫描仪。这些功能需要在高时间分辨率下进行定量显微分析，从而保持波茨坦大学在生物医学研究方面的竞争力。此外，所提出的显微镜还应该能够测量荧光寿命。该功能目前在波茨坦大学的任何显微镜设置中都不存在，并且将极大地有益于所有使用生物样品的研究小组，这些生物样品i）需要多重标记和检测几种分子物种或ii）具有强背景信号和自发荧光（例如细菌和植物样品）的特征。

A significant part of the research activity carried out at the Faculty of Science of the University of Potsdam (for example, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology) routinely requires the application of fluorescence microscopy. Specifically, confocal fluorescence microscopy is regularly used to investigate dynamic subcellular processes in living organisms. The University of Potsdam currently operates five confocal microscopes which are shared among ca. 15 research groups in a decentralized manner. Three of these microscopes are expected to be decommissioned in the next few years, starting in 2023, due to the fact that the supplier will not guarantee repairs of these older models. For this reason, we propose to replace one of these microscope with a new confocal laser scanning microscope equipped with multiple photon-counting detectors, sensitive also in the infra-red region of the spectrum, and a resonant scanner. These features are required to perform quantitative microscopic analysis at high temporal resolution and, thus, keep the University of Potsdam competitive in the context of bio-medical research. Furthermore, the proposed microscope should also be capable of measuring fluorescence lifetime. This feature is currently not present in any of the microscope setups available in the University of Potsdam and will strongly benefit all the research groups working with biological samples that i) require multiplex labelling and detection of several molecular species or ii) are characterized by strong background signal and autofluorescence (e.g. bacteria and plant samples).