This application supports the purchase of a Perkin-Elmer Ultraview LCI confocal microscope. This newly designed microscope, based on a recent enhancement in Nipkow disk technology, represents a major advance in confocal imaging of living cells. Compared with microscopes that use laser scanning, the Ultraview enables far faster image acquisition, real-time confocal viewing, and greatly reduced phototoxicity (compared with single-photon confocals). The designated user group consists of 13 scientists who serve as PIs on 27 research projects funded by 8 different institutes of the NIH. Key projects demand capturing time-series of confocal images over large regions of interest in multiple focal planes labeled with two or more fluorophores in order to visualize movements at m/sec speeds. These capabilities are integral to the research programs of several of the participating investigators and will greatly benefit the research efforts of all designated users. Projects include studies of RNA transport in Drosophila embryos, kinesin-mediated movements in cultured cells, post-Golgi sorting and axonal transport in cultured neurons, pH changes and protein movements in hair cells, calcium dynamics in brain slices, trafficking of iron transport proteins in epithelial monolayers, lipid raft-associated ion channels in fibroblasts, and potassium channels in pancreatic islet cells. Laser scanning microscopes cannot begin to meet these demands. The requested instrument will be equipped with accessories to permit flexible use by a diverse group of investigators. It will be housed in OHSU's Live-Cell Imaging Facility, which currently serves a group of 35 registered users drawn from among the >200 research laboratories located on the main campus of OHSU. Use of the instrument will be overseen by Bruce Schnapp (Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology), Gary Banker (Senior Scientist, CROET), and a steering committee drawn from other departments. Together, Schnapp and Banker have more than 30 years of expertise with advanced imaging methods. User training and day-to-day operation of the instrument will be the responsibility of Dr. Stefanie Kaech, who has 10 years experience with confocal imaging and participated in beta-testing of the Ultraview while on the staff at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (Basel).
| Sheets, Lavinia; Ransom, David G; Mellgren, Eve M et al. (2007) Zebrafish melanophilin facilitates melanosome dispersion by regulating dynein. Curr Biol 17:1721-34 |
