We are requesting a Zeiss LSM880 confocal microscope for the Live Cell Imaging Facility (LCIF) at UT Southwestern Medical School. The LCIF is a fee for service facility that maintains high end optical microscopes for the use of basic and clinical science investigators at UT Southwestern. Since 2004, the LCIF has supported the research of more than 200 biomedical researchers from 144 laboratories in 35 departments or divisions on the UT Southwestern campus, as well as users from neighboring institutions. The requested instrument will replace an eleven year old microscope that is two generations behind the current state of the art. The existing microscope will no longer be eligible for service contrat in 2016 and is experiencing extended downtimes because of the difficulty of finding replacements for failed components. The new microscope features more sensitive and higher resolution spectral imaging, more sensitive detectors, and a more efficient light path, resulting i overall higher quality data compared to the existing instrument. The requested microscope will be used to support NIH funded health related research, including studies of the mechanisms of DNA repair, growth factor signaling in the pancreas, the molecular origin of taupathies in neurodegeneration, the mechanism and function of phase transitions in the assembly of membrane signaling platforms and of amembranous subcellular granules, and the regulation of lipidogenesis.
Improvements in confocal microscope technology over the past two decades have made confocal fluorescence imaging a powerful tool for studying the behavior of specific molecules and organelles in cells and tissues. Together with gene silencing and gene transfer methodologies, confocal microscopy permits the physiological pathways that lead to diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis, preterm birth and diabetes to be dissected at the molecular level. The instrument requested in this proposal will upgrade the confocal capabilities at the UT Southwestern Medical School to the current state of the art and facilitate discovery of new disease mechanisms, preventions and treatments.
