A Confocal Microscope for Biological Research and Education

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides funds to aid in the purchase of a laser confocal microscope and related imaging equipment for use by faculty and students at the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois. The instrument will be placed in separate room where students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty will have ready access. Among the research areas that will benefit from availability of the instrument are studies of calcium channels in muscle, cardiac myofilament responsiveness to calcium, microtubule translocation in growing axons, and G protein signaling by tubulin. The instrument will also be used to train students at all levels in use of confocal microscopy, a key technology in modern cell biology. Over the last decade, the availability of the confocal microscope has revolutionized study of three-dimensional structure in living tissues and, together with a variety of injectable reporter molecules, of the intracellular location of calcium and other molecules important in the regulation of cellular function. The planned uses for the instrument are typical of the types of studies that have been made possible by the development of the confocal microscopy.