An award of the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) established a Center for Neuroscience Excellence at the UVSM that greatly enhanced the research infrastructure for neuroscience investigators across the UVSM campus.
The specific aim of this supplemental application is to markedly increase the research sophistication and innovation of optical imaging for neuroscience investigators at UVSM by requesting equipment funds to purchase a Bio-Rad Radiance 2100 Multiphoton Microscopy System that will be housed in the COBRE-supported Multi-user Neuroscience Imaging and Physiology Core. Multiphoton imaging is a state-of-the-art technique that allows investigators a window on individual cellular function within the larger context of a tissue. Specifically, one can perform high resolution, time lapse optical analysis in living tissues or organisms over extended periods of time because photolytic damage is minimized. Moreover, one can image deep within tissues or in vivo at high resolution because the light scattering by tissues that occurs in traditional epifluorescence or confocal fluorescence microscopy is minimized by use of long-wavelength excitation in multiphoton microscopy. Sophisticated imaging is a requisite for satisfactory completion of many of the projects supported by the COBRE award and by National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded projects to other neuroscience investigators at UVSM. The multiphoton system will allow investigators at UVSM to be at the forefront of optical imaging and thus significantly increase their potential for garnering future research support. Purchase of this instrument will have immediate impact on the research programs of 17 neuroscience faculty at UVSM distributed across five departments and three colleges. This level of innovation and sophistication in imaging is presently not available at UVSM.
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