Multiphoton Confocal Microscope Upgrades

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一份基于蔡司510 NLO系统的单光子和多光子激光扫描显微镜系统的升级方案。升级包括1)变色龙，一种易于使用的飞秒脉冲Ti：蓝宝石激光器，以取代我们老化和难以使用Ar泵浦Mira激光器；2)蔡司生理软件为510系统，允许更精密的图像处理和分析；3)工作站软件，在独立计算机上复制510分析功能，以便我们大量使用的510系统可以用于收集数据。我们的蔡司510系统是一个广泛使用的多用户设施，为各种单光子和多光子激发项目提供图像采集和分析。这些升级寻求1)提高多光子激发的可靠性和易用性，使普通用户可以独立工作；2)大大提高了多光子激发波长变化的速度，允许新的实验方法；3)在510系统上提供增加的软件功能；4)使分析功能“离线”可用，使510系统可以专门用于数据采集。我们的设备包括另外两台激光扫描共聚焦显微镜，一台蔡司410和一台BioRad 600，以及一台Atto Instruments的旋转盘共聚焦显微镜。我们的显微镜系统被几个实验室的研究人员用于各种项目。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a proposal to upgrade our one- and multi-photon laser scanning microscope system that is based on our Zeiss 510 NLO system. The upgrade consists of 1) the Chameleon, an easily use femtosecond pulse Ti:Sapphire laser to replace our aging and difficult to use Ar pumped Mira laser; 2) Zeiss Physiology software for the 510 system that allows more sophisticated image processing and analysis; 3) workstation software to duplicate the 510 analysis functionality on standalone computers so that our heavily used 510 system can be used for collecting data. Our Zeiss 510 system is in a heavily used multi-user facility that provides image acquisition and analysis for a wide variety of one- and multi-photon excitation projects. These upgrades are sought 1) to improve the reliability and ease of use of multi-photon excitation so that an average user can work independently; 2) greatly increase the speed of changing wavelengths of multi-photon excitation to allow novel experimental approaches; 3) provide increased software functionality on the 510 system; and 4) to make analysis functions available "off-line" so that the 510 system can be dedicated to data acquisition. Our facility includes two other laser scanning confocal microscopes, a Zeiss 410 and a BioRad 600, and a spinning disk confocal microscope, from Atto Instruments. Our microscope systems are used for a variety of projects by investigators from several laboratories.