We propose to add a facility for computerized three-dimensional image reconstruction and analysis to the Cytometric Facility at the Developmental Biology Center (DBC), UCI. The Cytometric Facility already provides the techniques of laser scanning confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, image analysis and manipulation, and single-cell microinjection for DBC members as well as some outside users. The 3D imaging facility will work primarily from stacked 2D images generated by confocal microscopy of fluorescent-labeled whole tissue samples and will make possible 3D reconstruction, rotation, pseudocoloring and volume measurements in a matter of minutes rather than the many hours consumed using present technology. The system will also be used to manipulate image sets obtained by magnetic resonance imaging microscopy. The equipment will be used initially in studies of the expression of cell adhesion molecules in Drosophila embryos and imaginal discs, analysis of cell lineage patterns in sea urchin embryos and in the developing vertebrate nervous system, mapping and experimental investigation of developing neuronal growth cones in the lower vertebrate visual system, investigating cellular aspects of development in the somatosensory cortex, the nerve cells responsible for the feeding response of hydra, and the electrical properties of identified neurons in Drosophila.
