Multiphoton Microscope for Biomedical Engineering Applications

描述（由申请人提供）：该提案要求支持购买多光子显微镜系统作为共享资源，以使德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的主要NIH支持项目受益。激光扫描多光子显微镜（LSMM）是一种显微成像工具，可提供具有光学切片的亚细胞分辨率图像。由于LSMM使用近红外激发光，它能够在厚样品中深入成像，并且由于光子仅在焦点体积处的非线性吸收，它提供比传统共焦显微镜更少的光漂白和光毒性。拟议的多光子显微镜将用于三个主要研究领域：1）纳米载体传递动力学研究，2）基础疾病和组织生理学，以及3）飞秒激光-组织相互作用。这些项目将对我们理解用于治疗疾病的药物递送机制产生重大影响，例如癌症，中风中的微血管血液动力学，角膜的激光显微手术，使用光谱学的癌症临床早期诊断，肿瘤转移和胚胎干细胞的分化机制。该仪器的使用将影响NIH资助的一系列研究癌症、中风和青光眼等疾病机制的项目。该仪器的加入将直接影响美国国立卫生研究院资助的特定研究项目，同时也为校园内更广泛的生物医学工程和科学界提供了一个重要的研究工具。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests support for the purchase of a multiphoton microscope system as a shared resource to benefit major NIH supported projects at the University of Texas at Austin. Laser scanning multiphoton microscopy (LSMM) is a microscopic imaging tool that provides subcellular resolution images with optical sectioning. Because LSMM uses near infrared excitation light, it is able to image deep within thick samples, and due to the nonlinear absorption of photons only at the focal volume, it provides less photobleaching and phototoxicity than conventional confocal microscopy. The proposed multiphoton microscope will be used in three primary areas of research: 1) study of nanovector delivery kinetics, 2) basic disease and tissue physiology, and 3) femtosecond laser-tissue interactions. These projects will have a significant impact in our understanding of drug delivery mechanisms for the treatment of diseases such as cancer, microvasculature hemodynamics in stroke, laser microsurgery of the cornea, the clinical early diagnosis of cancer using optical spectroscopy, tumor metastasis, and differentiation mechanisms of embryonic stem cells. The use of this instrument will impact a wide range of NIH funded projects studying the mechanisms of diseases such as cancer, stroke, and glaucoma. The addition of this instrument to the University of Texas will directly impact the specific NIH funded research projects while also provide a critical research tool to the broader biomedical engineering and science community on campus.