Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Cost-effective high throughput imaging is the cornerstone of modern cell biology laboratories. However, traditional fluorescence imaging plate readers lack the ability to resolve intricate cellular details in 3D, while confocal microscopes that function to screen samples in high throughput are prohibitively expensive. This application seeks to fund a Cytation C10 Spinning Disk Confocal Imaging Plate Reader to support advanced cell biology initiatives from microbiomes to embryos. The Cytation C10 is currently the only confocal imaging plate reader available and combines automated spinning disk confocal microscopy, widefield microscopy and multi-mode detection in one compact system. This combination of imaging modalities will enable our research groups to image and quantify complex cellular information to obtain meaningful results faster. The NSERC-funded research of the applicants focuses on cutting-edge aspects of cell biology. The applicants share a common challenge of obtaining high-resolution image datasets of complex cellular systems in 3D, rapidly while yielding quantitative information. The research themes include rapid imaging of morphology and protein localization in bacterial cells, visualizing outputs of chemical genetic screens, dissecting signalling and molecular pathways involved in bacterial-host interactions, and studying endocrine and neuronal development. This infrastructure is urgently needed as the lack of access to robust, high throughput multi-mode imaging has severely limited the scope of their research programs. The research projects of HQP are currently limited in scope and hampered by the need to access equipment at distant sites, or the use of inconsistent and time-consuming manual microscopy methods. The ability to perform large-scale screens rapidly and accurately is thus critically needed and will enable HQP to ask more ambitious research questions. The team of applicants and their HQP represent a range of backgrounds and reflect the diversity of Canadian society today.