Nikon Super-Resolution Structured Illumination Microscope (SIM)

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请申请资金购买尼康结构照明（SIM）超分辨率显微镜。该系统配置为专用的超分辨率荧光成像系统。这将是西北大学的第一个超分辨率显微镜。系统内置的各种功能被设计为在大量使用的成像核心设施中具有多种应用程序的高度通用性。购买这一重要设备将直接增强至少12个nih资助的“主要用户”的工作，如申请中所列。SIM系统对于解决仪器的短缺至关重要，这些仪器能够提供亚衍射分辨率，以填补长期存在于光显微镜和电子显微镜之间的信息鸿沟。该系统的可用性将使联邦政府资助的研究人员能够立即加强他们由美国国立卫生研究院资助的研究，以获得迄今为止无法获得的超微结构信息，开始更精确地进行细胞生物学实验，并制定和测试新的假设。由尼康确定为中西部的SIM超分辨率成像中心，我们使用与美国国立卫生研究院资助的工作直接相关的标本在现场测试了该仪器。我们在这里提供了我们打算在系统上执行的各种应用程序的初步数据。提交的初步结果包括一些高影响数据，目前正在准备发表，突出了该仪器的科学影响和适用性，以及我们操作该系统的技术专长。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is to request funds to purchase the Nikon Structured Illumination (SIM) super-resolution microscope. The system is configured to be a dedicated super-resolution fluorescence imaging system. It will be the first super-resolution microscope at Northwestern University. The various features built into the system are designed to be highly versatile in a heavily used imaging core facility with a multitude of applications. Th purchase of this important equipment will directly enhance the work of at least twelve NIH-funded "major users", as listed in the application. The SIM system is crucial in address a urgent paucity of instrumentation capable of delivering sub-diffraction resolution required to fill the information gap that has long-existed between light and electron microscopy. The availability of this system will allow the federally funded investigators to immediately enhance their NIH-funded research to gain hitherto unavailable ultrastructural information, to begin performing cell biological experiments with greater precision and to formulate and test new hypotheses. Identified by Nikon as the SIM super- resolution imaging center in the Midwest, we have tested this instrument on-site using specimens directly related to the NIH-funded work. We present here preliminary data for the various applications we propose to perform on the system. The preliminary results presented include several high impact data that are now being prepared for publication, highlighting the scientific impact and suitability of the instrument, as well as our technical expertise to operate the system.