Acquitision of Multiphoton Microscopy for the Study of Cellular Dynamics

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

A major research instrumentation grant has been awarded to Dr. Ehud Isacoff at the University of California at Berkeley for the purchase of a 2-photon scanning microscope. The research goal is to probe, non-invasively, by microscopic photometry and imaging, the distribution and structure of macromolecules (RNA, DNA and proteins), and their activity and interactions in living cells. The 2-photon microscope makes it possible to image cells and tissues with high spatial and reasonable temporal resolution, with penetrating excitation, but also with optically confined irradiation, thus limiting photo-damage to cells and photo-destruction of fluorescent tags. The instrument will form a centerpiece of a recently built Berkeley Imaging Center. The Imaging Center will provide access, training and technical support for use of the 2-photon microscope for students, postdocs and faculty in the biological sciences on campus and in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and will make the instrument available to academic researchers at other Bay Area campuses. The research projects conducted with the 2-photon microscope will include; 1) studies on synaptic proteins that have been engineered to be fluorescent and to change their fluorescence upon either activation or interaction with other proteins, 2) optical probes of neural activity to measure the function of neural circuits involved in visual information processing, 3) organic and protein-based indicator dyes to study the roles of calcium ions in synaptic transmission, short- and long-term plasticity, 4) the regulation of other second messenger systems and, 5) fluorescently labeled proteins to study the localization of postsynaptic receptors, and the changes in proteins involved in exocytosis during synaptic transmission. The aim of the research using the 2-photon microscope is to employ innovative forms of microscopy that can characterize the dynamics of molecular machines in their physiological environments: inside intact cells and tissues.