This is a request for funds to purchase a Philips CM120 Transmission electron microscope with a Gatan CCD camera, STEM attachment with a dark field detector, cryotransfer holder, TV imaging and image analysis system (including display capture and storage). Funds to purchase a Noran voyager x-ray microanalysis system with a digital imaging workstation are also being requested. The Philips CM 120 and accessories will be housed in the Medical School Electron Microscopy (MSEM) Facility at the University of Wisconsin- Madison Medical School. The microscope will be used by 7 major users (both NSF and NIH funded in the Department so of Anatomy, Pathology, Neurology, Neurophysiology, and Zoology and at the School of Pharmacy. The experimental efforts of the major users in this multi- user facility represent diverse problems in Neuroscience, Cell and Molecular Biology. The projects involve studying: the structure of fibronectin and collagen fibrils, generation of neuronal microtubule arrays, mechanisms of secretion, neural circuits of visual thalamus, characterization of medical superior olivary circuitry, regenerative phenomena of sensory and nerve cells, development of efferent nerve cells and microprobe analysis of cardiac muscle. Although the current transmission electron microscopes (Jeol 100CX and Hitachi H-600) can fulfill the basic electron microscopy needs of the users, these microscopes can not provide the researchers with the following: (1) image acquisition and archiving capabilities for morphometric analysis, (2) EDX and STEM capability for the detection of calcium and other elements in frozen sections, (3) cryo-electron microscopy capabilities and (4) dark-field capabilities to detect gold labeling.
