Acquisition of a Confocal Microscope for Neural and Cell Biology

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

A confocal microscope will permit state-of-the-art light microscopy and analysis for neuroscientists, cell biologists and microbiologists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The microscope will be housed in the high-resolution microscopy facility in the Department of Biological Sciences and will be available to all campus researchers. It will provide a valuable resource to researchers that currently must travel to use a confocal microscope and provide excellent opportunities for other scientists to expand their research in directions that are not currently possible. The confocal microscope will be readily adaptable to a wide variety of biological questions that are addressed in a multi-user facility. It will provide the capability for high-resolution localization of fluorescent probes and other markers in fixed and living cells. It will also enable the simultaneous detection of multiple probes in cells and allow the visualization of structures stained with multiple labels. Finally it will provide the capability for three-dimensional reconstruction of tissues containing multiple cellular and molecular markers. The Leica TCS SP confocal microscope is well suited for a multi-user facility. It has a prism to allow users to select the emission bands for specific fluorophores and optimize the wavelengths being used to minimize bleed-through. This permits the use of dye combinations that cannot be used with other systems and provides flexibility for use with future dyes and combinations that are not yet available. The three-laser system will provide for the diverse needs of many users. The design of the instrument provides shift-free illumination through a multi-laser merge module that permits the simultaneous detection of three different fluorophores. In addition, the scanhead is designed to be alignment-free. These characteristics make it extremely valuable for a multi-user facility in which many different applications will be performed on a single instrument. The 13 laboratories that will use this instrument currently house over 50 postdoctoral and graduate students and 20 undergraduate researchers. The facility will also serve as an educational tool in laboratory-based courses and provide unique research opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities at the undergraduate, graduate and faculty levels. The microscope will provide users and students with access to state-of-the-art equipment for the acquisition and processing of confocal images.