This request is for funds to purchase an Olympus Fluoview 1000MPE confocal/multiphoton fluorescence microscope system. This instrument will be housed, managed and maintained by the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy (ICBM), a core facility of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Indiana University George M. O'Brien Center for Advanced Renal Microscopic Analysis. Confocal and multiphoton microscopy are essential services of the center, which operates four confocal microscopes, two of which are equipped for multiphoton fluorescence microscopy. An eleven-year old BioRad MRC1024MP system accounts for a major fraction of current microscope utilization, but, due to its age, will soon lose service contract support. We seek to replace this dated and increasingly unreliable system with a new Olympus Fluoview system. Replacing the BioRad system with a new Olympus system will, 1. Provide users with a reliable instrument that will be supported by an ongoing manufacturer's service agreement, 2. Provide users with a modern system with enhanced performance and capabilities. The requested system is absolutely essential to the ICBM, which supports the research of over 68 NIH- funded laboratories, and is particularly crucial to the group of major users listed in this proposal, whose research has come to depend upon the current BioRad system. In addition to supporting Indiana University researchers, this system is also the primary microscope of our NIH-funded O'Brien Center, supporting the research of renal investigators throughout the world. The loss of this system will profoundly compromise the ability of the ICBM to function as a university core facility, and as a center of renal microscopy. Acquiring the new Olympus system will ensure the continued productive use of confocal/multiphoton microscopy at the ICBM Relevance - The proposed instrument is a crucial tool in the research of numerous biomedical investigators studying the cellular basis of disease. In particular, studies of living animals conducted with this instrument are uniquely powerful for elucidating disease processes and therapies in the context of the whole organism, making them better predictors of clinical outcomes. ? ? ?
