Benchtop Confocal Microscope - Project summary This proposal will support the purchase of a confocal microscope for biological research at Portland State University (PSU). Confocal microscopy is a “magic wand” in the biological sciences, permitting imaging of cellular and subcellular structures and processes labeled with exogenous or endogenous fluorophores. The requested instrument is a robust desktop configuration that does not require a dark room or vibration isolation, making it appropriate for a broad range of users, including students in courses. The requested configuration has four excitation lines, four objective lenses including a high-power oil immersion objective, and specialized software for isosurface rendering, high resolution snapshots, creation of multi-dimensional movies and downstream image editing. The proposing investigators who will be Major Users have many years’ experience with advanced light microscopy in both teaching and research, and will use the instrument in existing funded projects, for new research directions, and for expanding and developing curriculum. The microscope will serve multiple courses in physics and biology, serving a broad audience of majors and graduate students across the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering. It will support funded projects on (1) delivery of polyphenols to cells, (2) the morphology of picocyanobacteria, and (3) anoxia tolerance in killifish. The instrument will be located in a research corridor serving the Center for Life in Extreme Environments (CLEE), a PSU Center of Excellence, and as such will be automatically available to CLEE faculty, students, and external collaborators, currently over 60 faculty, students, and staff total, as well as to other PSU users and external users. PSU is a minority-serving institution whose primary mission is undergraduate education; the university currently offers research opportunities to underserved populations through a number of federal grants. The microscope will be available to any of these students whose research advisors sign up to use CLEE instrumentation. This instrument will be the first confocal microscope on campus and dramatically increase research throughput and quality in the biological sciences, as well as offering opportunities to external users. It will join several other light microscopes in the CLEE corridor, forming the nucleus of a planned Light Microscopy Core that will offer training and research opportunities to students and faculty across campus and to those from other local and regional schools who do not have access to advanced imaging technologies.
