New generation laser scanning confocal microscope for multimodal deep tissue and functional imaging

• Subject Area: Biophysics
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413875620

The Technical University Dresden has made a strong commitment to the research fields of Health Sciences, Biomedicine and Bioengineering by recruiting about 40 professors (among them two world-leading scientists that hold a prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Professorship) and more than 30 research groups in the past 20 years. Main fields of research are the biology of stem cells, tissue and organ repair (regenerative medicine), biotechnology and the biophysics of cell and tissue organization. Many experimental approaches involve the light microscopical investigation of molecules, cells, tissues and whole organisms. Especially useful in our days are technologies that not only allow imaging but functional studies on dynamic processes within living biological specimen as well. The instrument we apply for here is an outstanding versatile microscope system that offers access to classical confocal imaging modalities, deep tissue imaging (up to 1mm) by 2p excitation and flexible spectral detection and the determination of fluorescence lifetimes based on a new time measurement concept and highly efficient single photon detectors. In the following paragraphs the potential benefit for the biological research in Dresden will be outlined.

• DFG Programme: Major Instrumentation Initiatives
• Major Instrumentation: Inverse Laser Scanning Microscope
• Instrumentation Group: 5090 Spezialmikroskope
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Dresden
• Leader: Dr. Hella Hartmann
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Michael Brand; Professor Dr. Stephan Wolfgang Grill