Conventional laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) and multi- photon laser scanning microscopy (MPLSM) are now state-of-the-art technologies for vital imaging and/or the acquisition of high-resolution optical sections from thick biological specimens. This application requests funds for a Leica TCS SP2 confocal microscope to support research in Neuroscience and other areas of biomedical science at Tufts University. The Neuroscience Program of Tufts includes a strong, interdisciplinary, well-established, and well-funded group of investigators on the Boston and Medford campuses of the University. A core group of 10 investigators, all with external funding, will be primary users of the Leica TCS SP2 facility, and will account for approximately 60% of microscope use. These primary users are all faculty of the Tufts Graduate Neuroscience Program, which is intensely interactive and collaborative in nature. We will also ensure that the Leica TCS SP2 instrument is available to the larger community of faculty of Tufts Medical School; currently there are limited confocal facilities available to these faculty. The Leica instrument will be housed in a new Neuroscience Imaging Facility, with the support of the Chair of Neuroscience and the Dean of the Medical School. This facility will be supervised by a dedicated half-time technician who will have primary responsibility for maintaining the instrument and training new users. An advisory committee consisting of Neuroscience faculty has been organized to oversee the use and maintenance of the Leica instrument. Policies for the use and equitable sharing of the Leica confocal and a financial plan for the long-term maintenance of the instrument have been established by the advisory committee. At present, there is only a single, heavily-used (and outdated) confocal microscope for all three campuses of Tufts University (located within the Anatomy Department of the Medical School). Thus, the presence of the new Leica instrument and the Neuroscience Imaging Facility will greatly enhance the research of Tufts University faculty.
