Bioimaging Facility Confocal Microscope

描述(申请人提供)：此申请是为了支持购买单光子蔡司510 Meta激光共聚焦显微镜。该仪器将被安置在托马斯·杰斐逊大学坎摩尔癌症中心的生物成像设施中。该设施为基梅尔癌症中心、整个托马斯·杰斐逊大学的用户提供光学显微镜服务，并根据需要向邻近研究机构的研究人员提供服务。这台仪器是取代现有的Bio-Rad MRC-600共聚焦显微镜的关键，该显微镜已有11年以上的历史，其能力有限，维护起来越来越困难。重要的是，所请求的仪器将提供目前无法提供的新功能。这些功能包括以精确配准和高灵敏度对三个不同信号进行成像的能力、在用户定义的区域进行定量FRAP实验、可靠地抑制信号溢出、进行FRET实验以及提供解决重叠发射光谱的灵活性。 这份申请是由托马斯·杰斐逊大学坎摩尔癌症中心、法伯神经科学研究所和神经病学系的一群主要用户提交的，所有这些人都得到了NIH支持的多个涉及共焦显微镜的项目的良好资金支持，以及在他们的工作中对共焦显微镜的丰富经验和需求。此外，一群新的使用者包括职业生涯早期阶段的研究人员，他们特别需要共焦显微镜，而现有的仪器无法轻易解决这一问题，例如斑马鱼的成像和免疫突触的形成。收购拟议的仪器将使这些和其他研究人员能够更有效地开展他们的工作，并在他们的研究中使用和开发最先进的共焦显微镜技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is for support to purchase a single photon Zeiss 510 Meta laser confocal microscope. The instrument will be housed within the Bioimaging Facility of the Kimmel Cancer Center of Thomas Jefferson University. This Facility provides light microscopy services to users within the Kimmel Cancer Center, throughout Thomas Jefferson University, and as needed and available to investigators at neighboring research institutions. This instrument is critically needed to replace the existing Bio-Rad MRC-600 confocal microscope, which is over 11 years old, limited in its capabilities and increasingly problematic to maintain. Importantly, the requested instrument will provide new capabilities not currently available. These include the ability to image three distinct signals with precise registration and with high sensitivity, to conduct quantitative FRAP experiments on user-defined areas, to reliably reject signal bleed through, to carry out FRET experiments, and to provide the flexibility to resolve overlapping emission spectra. This application is submitted by a group of major users at Thomas Jefferson University within the Kimmel Cancer Center, in the Farber Institute of Neuroscience, and in the Department of Neurology, all of whom are well funded with multiple NIH-supported projects involving confocal microscopy, and extensive experience and need for confocal microscopy in their work. In addition, a group of new users includes investigators at earlier stages of career with particular need for confocal microscopy that cannot readily be addressed by the existing instrumentation, such as imaging of Zebrafish and immune synapse formation. Acquisition of the proposed instrument will allow these and other investigators to more effectively carry out their work, and to use and develop state-of-the-art techniques in confocal microscopy in their studies.