Live cell, high speed and resolution, spectral confocal microscope

Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application, from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, requests funding for the purchase of a high end confocal microscope. We present our case for the Zeiss LSM-710 NLO/LSM Live DUO. The proposed instrument will be equipped with an array of accessories dictated by the needs of our user group - in particular our major users. The LSM-710 will replace a Zeiss LSM-510 in the Central Microscopy Facility (CMF) that was purchased in 2002. The new system takes advantage of recent advancements in lasers, detectors and software components. Spectral imaging, for example, is accomplished at a much faster rate than the LSM-510. Sensitivity and signal-to-noise are also improved. The 710 is, in short, more efficient in many ways. We further propose that the 710 has significant advantages over competing instruments and discuss these in detail. However, recognizing that this is a rapidly changing field we would reappraise the situation for significant changes if awarded this grant. The majority of our proposed research focuses on live cell imaging and cell dynamics. The submitted research projects are subdivided into four groups. The first comprises NIH funded resident and visiting re- search and include our 5 major user projects. Four of these major projects are supported by researchers'holding a total of nine relevant individual investigator NIH grants (1 Merit Award and 8 R01s). Resident research includes applications from two of the institutes within the Woods Hole Consortium;the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Both undertake a broad range of re- search, with strong biomedical components. Visiting research in this first category covers MBL Whitman investigators and adjunct members of the MBL Cellular Dynamics Program. The Principal Investigator directs the latter. We include 11 projects in this first category. Our second user category includes applications from investigators funded by other federal agencies (4 projects: NSF and ONR). Our third category includes visiting investigators with non-federal funding (2 projects). Lastly, in category 4, we include short descriptions for 5 relevant MBL courses, offered at the post-doctoral to professorial level, which would make use of the new instrument. Two of these are also supported by NIH grants. The Zeiss 710 would be housed in the CMF, which has an exemplary history of maintaining high end instrumentation, making it available to a broad spectrum of users, and training researchers in the instrument's optimal use. There is a long history of support from commercial entities installing instrumentation at the MBL, notably for this application from Carl Zeiss Inc. The efficiency of the newer design yields several environmental advantages and a number of jobs are intimately connected with the purchase of this high end instrument. These are discussed in detail.