Acquisition of a Zeiss LSM710 Confocal Microscope

描述（由申请人提供）：特拉华大学（UD）被卡内基基金会列为“非常高研究活动研究型大学”。这些研究活动主要集中在生物医学研究的不同领域，特别是在生物科学系和工程学院，并严重依赖于组织和细胞成像的先进工具。为了最大限度地利用这些关键仪器，UD建立了一个多用户成像核心设施，负责设备调度和维护，用户培训和先进的技术咨询，以开发新的成像技术。该设施（十多年前）获得的第一批仪器之一是LSM510共聚焦显微镜，由于靠近其主要用户，组织培养设施和UD动物设施，该显微镜位于生物科学系。该仪器在整个UD的研究人员中大量使用，然而，它的使用寿命即将结束，其制造商将不再提供服务合同，并保证2009年夏季后维护的全系列部件的可用性。本申请申请资金替换这台过时的仪器，它不再满足我们用户社区的全部需求，使用直立LSM710共聚焦显微镜，该显微镜将位于生物科学系的显微镜套件中，由UD核心成像设施工作人员管理。这将确保所有使用特拉华大学核心成像设施的研究人员都能在特拉华大学主校区使用工作的共聚焦显微镜。这是美国国立卫生研究院在特拉华大学资助的许多研究项目的关键资源，研究各种疾病，包括白内障、骨质疏松症、关节炎、癌症、血管生成和血栓形成，也将有助于组织假体的发展，以修复或替换受损组织。此外，该显微镜将增强UD的生物医学研究能力，因为它具有先前显微镜所没有的功能，包括提高灵敏度，能够以高像素分辨率清晰地成像低倍率图像，能够以高灵敏度和低噪声执行光栅图像相关光谱。作为我们唯一的垂直共聚焦配置，将是理想的，以满足我们对整个动物，解剖组织和工程活组织假肢进行荧光成像的日益增长的需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Delaware (UD) is classified as a "very high research activity research university" by the Carnegie Foundation. Much of this research activity focuses on diverse fields of biomedical research, particularly in the Department of Biological Sciences and the School of Engineering and relies heavily on advanced tools for the imaging of both tissues and cells. In order to maximize the utilization of these critical instruments, UD established a multi-user imaging core facility which is responsible for equipment scheduling and maintenance, the training of users and advanced technical consulting to develop new imaging techniques. One of the first instruments acquired by this facility (over a decade ago) was a LSM510 confocal microscope which is housed in the Department of Biological Sciences due to the proximity of its major users, tissue culture facilities and the UD animal facility. This instrument is heavily used by investigators across UD, however, it is reaching the end of its lifespan and its manufacturer will no longer provide service contracts and guarantee availability of the full range of parts for its maintenance after summer 2009. This application requests funds to replace this obsolete instrument which no longer meets the full needs of our user community with an upright LSM710 confocal microscope which will be located in the microscope suite in the Department of Biological Sciences and administered by the UD core imaging facility staff. This will ensure access to a working confocal microscope on the UD main campus to all investigators who utilize the UD core imaging facility. This is a critical resource for numerous NIH funded research projects at UD investigating diverse diseases including cataracts, osteoporosis, arthritis, cancer, angiogenesis and thrombosis and will also contribute to the development of tissue prostheses to repair or replace damaged tissues. Furthermore, this microscope will enhance the biomedical research capabilities at UD since it has capabilities absent from the prior microscope including increased sensitivity, the ability to clearly image low magnification images at high pixel resolution, the ability to perform raster image correlation spectroscopy at high sensitivity and low noise, and as our only confocal with an upright configuration will be ideal to meet our growing needs to conduct fluorescent imaging of whole animals, dissected tissues and engineered living tissue prostheses.