High resolution nonlinear-optical intravital microscope

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 456903190

Our research is focused on the development and the application of fluorescence microscopy methods for super-resolution and high-speed optical microscopy. The current microscopes available within the research group are with the exception of one system (a commercial super-resolving structured illumination microscope) all custom-built system by members of my research group and controlled by flexible software (typically Matlab-based) developed within my research group. In current and future research projects, however, we are working more and more with tissue samples where the imaging process takes a rather long time with our current home-built instruments or they cannot be investigated at all with these instruments. In particular for clinical samples high penetration depth into tissue is needed while simultaneously achieving highest spatial resolution and high-speed data recording. Such work also depends on the availability of a robust system, on which users from biological and medical research groups can be trained. Based on the complexity of our applications, based on prior research results, and based on its unique properties, only a unique multiphoton intravital fluorescence microscope fulfills all our requirements for a 2-photon as well as 3-photon fluorescence microscope. This system enables us to address complex research questions based on its flexible Python-based user interface and it also contains a unique horizontal scanner, which will allow us to obtain tomographic images from extended samples, which are otherwise too large to be imaged by regular multiphoton microscopes.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Hochauflösendes nichtlinear-optisches Intravitalmikroskop
• Instrumentation Group: 5040 Spezielle Mikroskope (außer 500-503)
• Applicant Institution: Universität Bielefeld
• Leader: Professor Dr. Thomas Huser