DEVELOPMENTAL RESOURCE FOR BIOPHYSICAL IMAGING AND OPTO ELECTRONICS

生物物理发展资源的总体任务

The overall mission of the Developmental Resource for Biophysical Imaging and Opto-Electronics (DRBIO) consists of the creation, development and application of new instrumentation and analysis technologies for the visualization and measurement of dynamic cellular and molecular processes. Our current primary research areas are the development of Multi-Photon Excitation Laser Scanning Microscopy (MPELSM), a technique first demonstrated by our group in 1990, and applications of Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS), a technique also developed in this group 25 years ago which has recently found many new uses with the advent of inexpensive and powerful computers. The advantages of fluorescence imaging with multiphoton excitation include a substantial reduction of photobleaching and photodamage outside of the focal planes (due to the intensity squared dependence of the focused beam), deeper penetration of the excitation beam into thick, scattering samples, and the ability to excite UV dyes without the need for UV optics. We are an NCRR Resource and carry out collaborations with researchers in animal and plant biology, chemistry, physics and medicine here at Cornell and from other national and international universities. Our invention of the MPELSM has recently been licensed by BioRad Life Science's microscopy division and is now a commercial product. With assistance from Parallel Processing Resource for Biomedical Scientists at the Cornell Theory Center, collaborators and staff at DRBIO have developed routine methods using IBM Data Explorer software for the reconstruction and animation of 3D images from multiple image sections through a specimen.