Spinning-Disk Confocal Microscope for Wide-Field, Super-Resolution, and Live-Cell Imaging

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Project summary This application requests funding for the purchase a Nikon CSU-W1 SoRa Spinning-Disk Super-Resolution Confocal Microscope to support 28 NIH-Funded research projects by 16 major and 7 minor users at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC). The requested system has four solid state lasers and a wide field of view and can image frame rates up to 200fps. The imaging speed and light efficiency of the CSU- W1 SoRa equipped with an environmental chamber and piezoelectric stage make it ideal for live cell imaging, an area of growing interest at KUMC. The increased optical resolution afforded by the microlensing of the SoRa unit together with the additional 3D deconvolution package will enhance spatial resolution capabilities to 120nm with minimal phototoxicity, and will benefit a number of investigators interested in capturing intracellular dynamics in a variety of subcellular systems (e.g., mitochondria, cytoskeleton, exosomes, vesicular trafficking, autophagy, cell-signaling, axonal remodeling, and primary cilia). No other spinning-disk confocal microscopes are present on the KUMC campus, and recent decommissioning of several obsolete confocal systems has led to a critical need. This system will be housed in space designed for and dedicated to confocal microscopy. The CSU-W1 SoRa will be integrated into our long-established Imaging Facility, fully staffed by 2 senior scientists with extensive technical expertise in confocal microscopy and image analysis. Adjacent rooms provide dedicated space for administration, histological preparation, and digital processing on high content image analysis workstations with NIS-Elements software. The Imaging Facility has been successfully facilitating research at KUMC for over 40 years and currently serves about 140 active users. The CSU-W1 SoRa will provide tangible benefit to a large number of programs at a time when recent growth of NIH-funded research at KUMC, coupled with recent reductions confocal capacity, have led to a critical need.