Confocal laser microscope

• Subject Area: Neurosciences
• Term: Funded in 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424667379

Confocal microscopy is a common standard technique in immunological research and offers a detailed spatial analysis of different cell populations and tissues. Modern confocal laser scanning microscopes with multiple laser lines and fast scanning systems allow the analysis of cell dynamics, interactions and morphology in fixed and living specimens. In different immunological and neuroimmunological research questions, confocal microscopy is applied to study the immune cell populations in the central nervous system (CNS) and beyond. Studying immune cells in the CNS with confocal microscopy allows to answer different aspects about the cell populations, such as a detailed analysis of cell recruitment in neuroimmunological disease or the behaviour of resident immune cells during homeostasis and disease. Recent advances in the field highlight a so far unexplored heterogeneity within the CNS-resident and –associated immune cell populations during homeostasis and disease with high complexity, dynamics, and plasticity. Therefore, there is an urgent need for planned and developing research projects within the institute to identify cell populations precisely with multiple markers, but also the development of new reporter models demands the imaging of multiple parameters within one specimen.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Konfokales Lasermikroskop
• Instrumentation Group: 5090 Spezialmikroskope
• Applicant Institution: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
• Leader: Professor Dr. Marco Prinz