The purpose of this proposal is to purchase a Zeiss LSM 710 confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) in the Microscopy Services Laboratory (MSL), a core facility in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine that serves the Cancer Research Center and the Medical School research community. Since we replaced an out of date CLSM five years ago with two more modern instruments we have seen tremendous growth in the use of CLSMs in numerous areas of research. Our existing instruments were used 90% of full capacity by over 400 scientists working under 252 of principal investigators from 42 departments and centers. Now that confocal laser scanning microscopy has become a vital component of research in so many laboratories the limitations of the available instruments has become vividly evident to a number of the current CLSM users. The proposed CLSM will greatly expand research capabilities of investigators who use this core facility. Researchers now need to resolve multiple fluorescent labels in the same specimens;many studies require subcellular imaging deep within an aqueous mounted sample, many samples are tissues with high intrinsic background fluorescence;several hundred images may be required for a single data collection run, and in many cases three dimensional structures must be reconstructed. The new instrument has a large selection of laser excitation wavelengths combined with a multi-channel spectral photomultiplier detection system for separation of many fluorescent dyes used simultaneously. Standard photomultipliers are also present for conventional confocal imaging. The new system also promises higher light gathering power through some innovative light scavenging systems. These features combine to produce an instrument that will serve researchers at UNC well into the future. Members of the MSL staff are experts in microscope imaging technology and are skilled in functioning as a service facility. They will be guided by an internal advisory committee. The MSL is well supported by the School of Medicine and occupies 2,000 sq. ft. of space centrally located in the medical complex. The new expanded-capacity CLSM in this facility will benefit the medical research community at UNC by making new and vitally-required technology accessible to many investigators. This instrument is a new generation of multi-spectral CLSMs that supplants the technology of the MSL and the other existing spectral CLSMs on campus.
This is an application to purchase a Zeiss LSM 710 confocal laser scanning microscope for the Microscopy Services Laboratory, a core facility supported by the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the Cancer Research Center and the Medical School. This new instrument is required because the scientific problems that confront our scientists require this machine's additional capacity to detect simultaneously larger numbers of molecules labeled with different fluorescent tags and its ability to suppress the auto-fluorescence of tissues and structures that must be examined. The new instrument will be located in the Microscopy Services Laboratory, which is a long-running core facility staffed by experts in microscope imaging technology, that functions very efficiently as a multi-user service facility and is very well supported by the department, center and school.
