Preventative Maintenance and Service agreement for Leica confocal microscope stellaris 8 (serial # 8300000355)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation’s leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people’s health and save lives.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease. With this Leica confocal microscope stellaris 8, we can take high resolution images from both fixed samples and living cultures. These high-resolution images will provide us many critical information, such as where the protein locate in the tissue, how proteins are interacting with each other, et.al. This confocal microscope, which is purchased in 2021, is a critical component in the carrying out collaborations within the NINDS. It is one of the most often used instrument, a service agreement allows for quick repair if needed and regular maintenance work to ensure continued use of the equipment for scientific experiments.

The Leica Stellaris 8 Confocal microscopy system provides state of the art imaging capabilities that are required for the investigations ongoing in the NINDS Molecular Neurobiology Section, Ngai laboratory. The system requires routine preventative maintenance. This contract will ensure minimal downtime due to hardware and/or software malfunction. Additionally, the contract is required in order to maintain the study of adult stem cell-mediated regeneration, because it retains the ability to generate new neurons throughout the lifespan of the animal, including single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses, mouse genetics, viral transduction, immunohistochemistry, multiplexed RNA in situ hybridization, primary tissue culture, and confocal microscopy, to predict and test determinants of neural regeneration from a variety of angles. the equipment must be in operable condition and prevent costly repairs.