confocal laser scanning microscope

• Subject Area: Zoology
• Term: Funded in 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441999774

For more than ten years, the department „Allgemeine & Spezielle Zoologie“ undertakes research under the title “evolutionary morphology” to answer questions of the evolutionary change of animal form using a rich array of modern visualizations methods. One of these methods is confocal laser scanning microscopy, which three-dimensionally visualizes structures via autofluorescence or by fluorchrome-staining. Such a machine is present in our lab since 2010 and is now to be replaced by a new one, which should meet the new, advanced scientific demands and enables the application of novel technological possibilities. This includes the realization of research projects such as evolutionary morphology of the nervous system in entomostracan crustaceans, evolutionary morphology of hearts in arthropods, investigations on the musculature of Malacostraca under phylogenetic and functional aspects, taxonomy of polychaetes and beetles and visualization of histological sections (all ongoing projects). The new machine should therefore include a pulsed white light laser, which enables the recording of almost freely selectable and combinable excitation wavelengths and a motorized object table with an automated multiposition stitching function allowing e.g. for much larger fields of view than the old machine could provide.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: CLSM
• Instrumentation Group: 5090 Spezialmikroskope
• Applicant Institution: Universität Rostock
• Leader: Professor Dr. Stefan Richter