Open Letter for obtaining a multiphoton confocal microscope:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I am sending you this important letter on behalf of Doug Engel, Chair, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology. I am asking for your support in addressing the possibility of the Microscopy and Image-analysis Laboratory (MIL) obtaining a multiphoton (2-photon) confocal microscope system for shared use. A 2-photon system offers advantages over conventional confocal systems in that it does not photobleach fluorescent labels (chromophores) and is not phototoxic to living cells. Infrared lasers are used with this system allowing for deeper penetration into samples thus, a 2-photon system would be ideal for imaging live cells as well as tissue/organ cultures.
There are many references about the advantages of 2-photon confocal microscopy and theory. One interesting site is posted on the MIL web site (www.med.umich.edu/cdb/mil).
A comprehensive 2-photon system is essential for us to move along with technology and I find it interesting that this campus does not have even one available for shared use. As an example, there are lesser institutes that have multiple systems. A system of this nature will open up avenues for grants to be funded and is an invaluable tool for recruitment of innovative faculty. I suspect that even one system may be so overwhelmed with use that we could be looking into the possibility of having multiple systems to keep up with lengthy imaging of live cells over time.
A system like this is expensive; upwards of $1,000,000. Planning strategy to obtain the funds needed to make such a purchase is going to be an interesting venture but one that's not impossible. The first step is to hear from you. If your researchers are currently imaging live cells, want to image live cells, need deeper tissue/cell imaging, or have been thwarted due to lack of proper instrumentation, now is the time for me to hear from you. We have an initial list of interested researchers who responded to an earlier inquiry from Chris Edwards; Manager of the Microscopy and Image-analysis Laboratory (MIL). Chris has also met with the Dean and others in Med Admin and they are willing to help with this acquisition although they have not offered any secure funding at this time as they need to know the level of interest and where any possible co-funding support could be coming from and how much.
Chris will act as the technical coordinator for this and has already contacted the major vendors (Leica, Zeiss, Olympus, Perkin-Elmer). He will also put together a group of higher end users to act as an advisory committee for technical concerns. If you have any questions about applications, technique, configurations, or anything related to the technical aspects, please address these questions to him directly at fishon@umich.edu.
If you have any related thoughts please pass them along to me. I need to make a list of interested researchers so I can take the next step. At your earliest convenience, please announce this to your research faculty for feed-back and get back to me as soon as possible. I will count a response to this email as an indication that you do wish to support this effort and you would like to have access to such an instrument. I may need to ask for a brief letter of support in the immediate future.
Thank you.
Chris A. Edwards, Mgr.
Microscopy & Image-analysis Laboratory
Department of Cell & Developmental Biology
The University of Michigan School of Medicine
3062 Biomedical Sciences Research Bldg.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2200
ph. 734-936-4912
fax: 734-763-1166