Project Grant S10OD034206

LEICA STELLARIS 5 CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE FOR SHARED RESOURCE FACILITY - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT THIS S10 PROPOSAL SEEKS FUNDS TO SUPPORT THE PURCHASE OF A STATE-OF-THE-ART LEICA STELLARIS 5 CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE. THIS NEW MICROSCOPE WILL BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE IMAGING CORE FACILITY WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF NEUROBIOLOGY AND ANATOMY AT DREXEL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE. DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH IS DIVERSE AND SPANS THE AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT, ADDICTION, NEURODEGENERATION, INJURY/REPAIR, AND COMPUTATIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF CIRCUITS. THE VARIOUS RESEARCH PROGRAMS WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF NEUROBIOLOGY AND ANATOMY RELY HEAVILY ON MICROSCOPY. ONLY ONE AGING CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE IS OPERATIONAL AND AVAILABLE TO THE MULTIPLE NIH-FUNDED USERS IN THE DEPARTMENT. AS SUCH, THAT CONFOCAL IS NOW UNDER HEAVY, DAILY USE THAT EXTENDS INTO LATE EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS. BECAUSE OF THIS HEAVY USAGE, THE EXISTING CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE HAS ALREADY STARTED TO MALFUNCTION AND REQUIRES FREQUENT TECHNICAL REPAIRS, DELAYING PROGRESS ON MANY FUNDED PROJECTS. IMPORTANTLY, SEVERAL OF THE USERS ARE JUNIOR INVESTIGATORS WHO ARE AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE IN THEIR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CAREERS. ACQUIRING A NEW LEICA STELLARIS 5 WILL INCREASE THE CAPACITY TO FULFILL THE HIGH DEMAND FOR CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY NEEDED TO ADVANCE AND CARRY NIH-SUPPORTED RESEARCH PROJECTS FORWARD. IN ADDITION, THE STELLARIS TECHNOLOGY IS SO FAR ADVANCED COMPARED TO THE CURRENT CONFOCAL THAT THE RESEARCHERS WILL BE ABLE TO ACHIEVE SIGNIFICANT NEW HEIGHTS IN THEIR CAPABILITIES. FOR INSTANCE, THE STELLARIS 5 FEATURES A NOVEL, RED-SHIFTED WHITE LIGHT LASER TO COMPLEMENT NEW POWER HYD DETECTORS THAT EXTEND DETECTION INTO THE NEAR INFRARED SPECTRUM, ALLOWING FOR GREATER FLEXIBILITY IN IMAGING CAPACITY. THIS TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENT AND MANY OTHERS WILL INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY ON THE FUNDED PROJECTS IN THE DEPARTMENT AND WILL ENHANCE THE TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS THAT CAN BE PERFORMED, THUS IMPROVING BOTH THE CAPACITY AND CAPABILITIES OF THE HEALTH-RELATED NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH.