This request is for funds to purchase a multiphoton capable/single photon Olympus Fluoview 1000 confocal microscope. This instrument will be housed within the Center for Biologic Imaging (CBI) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The mandate of this core facility is to provide access to a full range of light and electron optical, image analysis, and morphometric methods to all research groups within the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Confocal microscopy is an essential service provided by the center, the current core use confocal microscopes within the facility are a 3 yr old and a 2 yr old Olympus FV1000, a 9 year old Olympus fluoview 500, a similarly aged Leica TCS SL and a 6 year old Zeiss 510. The reasons for this application are to: 1: Provide access to multiphoton microscopy within the Center and 2: to provide critically needed instrument time Since the CBI commenced operations 16 years ago, it has become an integral part of the medical research community currently participating in research projects with more than 200 PHS funded groups within the medical area, as well as in PHS supported projects with investigators in other departments and at neighboring institutions. The available multiphoton system is a 10 yr old home made system the CBI and is not useable as a """"""""core"""""""" microscope as it has a manually tuned laser and significantly modified early FV 300 scanhead. Furthermore as the PHS funded user base within the institution continues to expand, and a lack of available confocal time has become a major limiting factor in the utility of the center, this leads to considerable frustration amongst users. The acquisition of a single/multihoton capable instrument will allow individual users more ready access to multiphoton microscopy and will help alleviate the current user bottle neck for single photon confocal microscopy.
Confocal microscopy and mutiphoton microscopy have facilitated the adoption of optical sectioning methods as a primary tool for use in biomedical research. This application seeks funds to place an automated single photon/multiphoton instrument within the Center for Biologic Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh. This instrument will be both a critical addition to the available repertoire of confocal microscopes within the center but will also be the only core multiphoton system available on campus.
