A multiuser confocal laser scanning microscope for live and 3-D imaging of craniofacial cellular dynamics

出生缺陷、癌症、再生和退化都是通过对胚胎正常发育的研究可以更好地理解的过程。该领域的最新进展已将重点从单个基因转移到复杂的调节级联，这些调节级联在不同的亚细胞间、细胞之间和组织之间发挥作用。这反过来需要在非常精细的尺度上研究基因产物(蛋白质)的分布及其生物效应：单个细胞的尺度，甚至细胞内的尺度。幸运的是，新型显微镜促进了这一点。在这一应用中需要的是一种共聚焦激光扫描显微镜，它一次只照射样品中的一个微小光点(但逐渐扫描照射的激光束穿过样品并穿过样品)，消除了传统显微镜的大部分眩光和模糊。这样的仪器可以收集组织内部深处的图像，并同时检测识别不同蛋白质的不同颜色。请求这台仪器的部门没有自己的共焦显微镜，该部门的几名成员目前不得不前往偏远地点收集这些关键图像。因此，提供所要求的文书将大大提高利用研究理事会和其他资金开展项目工作的效率。

Birth defects, cancer, regeneration and degeneration are all processes that can be better understood by the study of normal development of embryos. Recent advances in the field have shifted the focus from individual genes to complex regulatory cascades that operate in diverse sub-cellular compartments, between cells and between tissues. This, in turn, requires the study of the distribution of gene products (proteins) and their biological effects at a very fine scale: the scale of individual cells and even within cells. Fortunately, this is facilitated by new types of microscope. The one being requested in this application is a confocal laser scanning microscope that, by illuminating only one tiny spot at a time within a specimen (but scanning the illuminating laser beam progressively across and through it), eliminates most of the glare and fuzz of conventional microscopes. Such instruments enable images from deep within tissues to be gathered and different colours that identify different proteins to be detected simultaneously. The department requesting this instrument does not have its own confocal microscope, and several members of the department currently have to go to remote sites to collect these crucial images. The provision of the requested instrument will thus result in greatly increased efficiency in using Research Council and other funds for project work.