Abberior 3D-STED microscope for super-resolution imaging

Brandeis University, Waltham MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY We are requesting funds to purchase an Abberior Instruments FACILITY line 3D STED microscope to be maintained in the Brandeis University Confocal Imaging Core Facility. This microscope will serve a primary user group of 10 NIH funded investigators, and two junior faculty who will be applying for NIH funding, and we welcome additional users from the biomedical sciences at Brandeis and the region. Our groups pursue a wide variety of projects relevant to human health including aging, cancer biology, neurodegeneration, epilepsy, learning and memory, and the origins of multicellular organisms. A common feature of these diverse studies is a deep reliance on optical microscopy and an overarching interest in understanding how molecular-scale structures (tens of nanometers in size) control cell and tissue-scale biological processes. A major barrier to our progress in these areas is the lack of an imaging system at our institution that can resolve these tiny structures of interest. Among the many strategies to overcome this resolution barrier (such as STORM, SOFI, and expansion microscopy), a STED microscope is the ideal solution for our research community: It is fundamentally a confocal microscope, and our user base has exceptionally broad and deep expertise in all aspects of confocal microscopy including sample preparation, imaging, and rigorous quantitative image analysis. A STED microscope would represent a five-fold improvement in resolution over our current capabilities and would open up avenues of biology that are completely invisible to us now. Data collected on the instrument will help answer many open questions: How do novel therapeutic nanoparticles target subcellular organelles to fight cancer? How do signal sending and receiving structures at neuronal synapses assemble together to control learning and memory or prevent epilepsy? How do molecules important to aging and neurodegeneration localize and function at these synapses? Because of the small size of each of these structures, these are questions we cannot answer with our current technology. Beyond the increase in resolution this system provides, it is equipped with features that facilitate deep volumetric imaging and live imaging, which will allow us to perform experiments in vivo in living tissues. Together, the Abberior STED system would profoundly improve our ability to discover how nanoscale molecular and cellular structures control cell and tissue biology that is relevant to human health and disease.