Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - Address: Core Facility for Imaging OMRF Research Tower 825 NE13th ST Oklahoma City, OK 73104 Project Director info Ben Fowler 405-271-7245 Ben-fowler@omrf.org https://imaging.omrf.org/ These funds are being requested by the Imaging Core Facility at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation to purchase two state-of-the-art imaging systems to enhance and expand on the existing infrastructure available to the Oklahoma Scientific Community. The Facility, established in 1999, has continually provided all researchers within the state of Oklahoma with the expertise and equipment necessary to be both inquisitive and direct in the examination and elucidation of scientific information. As more detailed information becomes available and more rigorous questions are asked, the ability to elucidate scientific details often becomes a limiting factor to new discoveries. For our Oklahoma researchers, discovering the key pathways and mechanisms to understand and prevent or treat conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity requires the ability to visualize and analyze specific types of data. The Zeiss LSM980 Multiphoton Point-Scanning Confocal microscope ($1,091,268.27) will allow for the expansion of currently available standard confocal imaging, while also providing enhanced new imaging techniques. The addition of a multiphoton laser will not only allow for deep tissue imaging, but also Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (the ability to monitor dynamic interactions inside a very small volume, such as across the interior/exterior of a subcellular membrane). In addition, this system will have more advanced super-resolution capabilities than any system currently residing in the Facility, allowing for faster and clearer imaging of fluorescent signals in tissues and cells. While the multiphoton laser allows for a deeper imaging of samples than the standard confocal microscope, it is still limited by a maximum sample thickness. The Lightsheet 7 ($665,528.20) overcomes this limitation and allows intact organs/organisms to be viewed in their entirety (without the need for sectioning). While this system does not provide as high a resolution as the LSM980, it is still especially important for looking at vasculature and neuronal network pathways, and anything that requires 3D visualization. These two systems work in concert to allow Oklahoma investigators to transition between “big picture,” hypothesis driven imaging of an intact sample, to specific area of interest imaging with high resolution and clarity.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).