Leica Vibrating Blade Microtome or Equal

The purpose of this requirement is to acquire a Leica VT1200S vibrating blade microtome or equal to examine the mechanisms of synaptic integration and dendritic information in dopamine neurons located in the midbrain.

Research in the Cellular Neurophysiology Section focuses on circuit and cellular properties of dopaminergic neurons located in the midbrain. We are interested in the physiology of a subset of dopamine neuron located in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) that undergo selective cell death in Parkinson’s patients.  Specifically, we are interested in understanding how synaptic and intrinsic conductances (particulary calcium permeable conductances, ie voltage gated calcium channels and glutamate activated receptors) differ among subpopulations dopamine neurons with the hope that this may provide insight to why SNc dopamine neurons are particularly vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease.  Our goal is to identify novel physiological and genetic markers in single SNc dopamine neurons which may be useful in defining subpopulations of these neurons in a meaningful way. 

This is an absolutely essential piece of equipment in our laboratory that is used by nearly everyone in their past and current studies. In fact, 100% of the published studies out of our laboratory have depended on tissue slices generated by a vibrating blade microtome. Thus, this is equipment is central to our laboratory’s experimental work. In order to study the physiology of dopamine system neurons, our lab uses the approach where we examine their excitability in live tissue slices. Access to tissue slices allow us to directly probe the activity of neurons with the highest level of experimental precision. In order to obtain tissue slice, we need to use a high quality tissue slicer with high mechanical stability. Thus the tissue slicer is absolutely critical equipment in our laboratory.