Project Details
Projekt
Confocal laser-scanning-microscope
Subject Area
Neurosciences
Term
Funded in 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 533293533
We are applying for a new confocal laser-scanning microscope (CLSM) at Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) Mannheim, to perform high-detailed multi-colour fluorescent imaging of fixed brain tissue and 2D/3D cell culture samples. The procurement of this new CLSM will be indispensable for maintaining and further increasing the high standards of scientific research produced by our groups here at the CIMH and our close collaborators in the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim. Our groups at the CIMH and Heidelberg University are investigating diverse topics of system neuroscience and psychiatric diseases on rodent brains as well as cultured human brain tissue (2D/3D organoids) and have published numerous high-profile papers in peer-reviewed journals during the last 5 years. For our research, we depend on high-quality and state-of-the-art confocal microscopy, but we have been drastically disadvantaged by our deprecated CLSM, which is technologically obsolete due to its age of over 12 years, has technical problems that cannot be solved due to the discontinuation of maintenance support, and in addition lacks functions that would be essential for our applications. Thus, both its quality and functionality fall critically short of meeting the demands of our present research and our future-oriented endeavors. The new CLSM we aim to procure represents the culmination of a comprehensive, two-year-long process involving in-depth and unbiased market research, consultations with renowned confocal microscopy experts, and extensive dialogues with three major CLSM producers. In several on-site as well as remote demo trials with all three producers, in which several representatives from our groups participated, we tested the various systems with our own diverse samples and based on the results identified the optimal one for our requirements. To substantiate our choice, we are providing in this proposal representative proof-of-principle images from our own samples taken at the currently favored configuration, demonstrating that it will be very well suited for our research applications. We are furthermore providing letters of support from two independent CLSM experts, who are proficient with diverse models from various manufacturers including our favored one, and have expressed their positive endorsements regarding our favored CLSM configuration after having evaluated it in terms of our planned research applications. In conclusion, the new CLSM will be indispensable for the current and future research of our groups at CIMH and University of Heidelberg and will also be of great benefit to the local scientific community of the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim.
DFG Programme
Major Research Instrumentation
Major Instrumentation
Konfokales Laser-Scanning-Mikroskop
Instrumentation Group
5090 Spezialmikroskope
Applicant Institution
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
