The Chemistry Department at the University of California-Los Angeles will acquire a stimulated emission depletion confocal laser scanning microscope (STED-CLSM) with this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program. The requested microscope displays resolution down to 28 nm in the focal plane, a 10x improvement over conventional light microscopes. The instrument will be used to develop multi-color inorganic, stable, quantum rods as novel STED probes, decipher the structure of chromatin and its packaging into chromosomes in the cell, study cell signaling, viral and bacterial infection pathways, neural plasticity and many other important biological questions.
STED microscopy provides an alternative to electron microscopy because it capitalizes on the well-established advantages of fluorescence microscopy (sensitivity, molecular specificity, genetically encoded probes, live cells, ease of operation). The STED concept relies on a purely physical phenomenon, stimulated emission, coupled with smart optics, to sharpen the confocal excitation spot, resulting in much more detailed, nanometer resolved images. Bridging the gap between electron and diffraction-limited light microscopy, a STED nanoscope should be a powerful tool for unraveling the relationship between structure and function in cell biology. Indeed, many outstanding problems lay in the nanometer scale, such as the organization of chromosomes, the assembly of large protein complexes and viral structures, organelle structures, as well as applications to non-biological nano-scale devices.
