Project Details
Projekt
Confocal-laser-scanning-microscope
Subject Area
Medicine
Term
Funded in 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 511550821
With the new appointment at the chair of Pharmaceutical Biology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, I would like to initiate a scientific reorientation of the research focus. In the coming years, we will be working intensively on bacterial infectious diseases, which represent one of the top three threats to humanity. We are investigating how bacteria communicate with each other and modulate host cells by means of cell-derived vesicles. These extracellular vesicles are fundamental cell communicators and relevant in various pathophysiologies. Our fundamental findings contribute to the development of urgently needed new therapeutic options in the field of bacterial infections and inflammatory diseases. The laboratories at the chair will be extensively renovated in 2022/23 to create an optimal research infrastructure. Following these refurbishments, I plan to establish an independent S2 area in which infection models on pathogens will be optimised and evaluated. For this purpose, I would like to equip a measuring area with a confocal fluorescence microscope and a flow cytometer that is also accessible to other users. I am submitting separate but parallel applications for these two major research instruments and I am asking for a joint review, as the devices as these devices are a common integral part of the S2 infrastructure to be created at the chair. The confocal microscope is primarily used for the spatial-temporal visualisation of infection models, while flow cytometry is used to quantify the cellular samples. An areal separation of these two devices would entail uncertainties and instabilities during the transport of the cell samples and would therefore mean a significant reduction in scientific results and impair the development of new anti-infective therapies. The planned confocal microscope is a confocal laser scanning microscope. It is equipped with a heated CO2 incubation chamber with a motorised scanning stage so that living cell and bacterial samples can be examined over long incubation periods. It shall be equipped with a diode or white light laser and capable of measuring at least at three excitations (350, 480 and 546 nm) to analyse a wide range of typical fluorophores. A super-resolution detector with appropriate analysis software allows the best possible imaging and processing of the confocal images. Especially for the measurement of small vesicles and bacteria, a lateral resolution of <100 nm is necessary. The measurements should be gentle on the sample, i.e. with the lowest possible excitation power and measurement duration, which is achieved by using objectives with a large aperture pupil diameter and the largest possible sample measurement field. An actively damped optical stage allows low-vibration microscopy. The unit is installed in a separate, dark room.
DFG Programme
Major Research Instrumentation
Major Instrumentation
Konfokales-Laser-Scanning-Mikroskop
Instrumentation Group
5090 Spezialmikroskope
Applicant Institution
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
