Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

A number of researchers at York University study cells using techniques such as microscopy. We are particularly interested in how things work inside cells and traditionally have studied different parts of cells and different activities in cells using microscopes that can only look at cells that have been ""fixed"". Fixed cells are cells that have been suddenly stopped in their tracks (fixed) so that the structure and layout of the cells are maintained but they are dead and nothing is functioning in them. There are now more advanced microscopes that will allow us to look at living cells and to record activities of cellular functions in real time. This is obviously a powerful approach to study living cells and see how various parts of the cells are behaving in different conditions and perhaps with different types of treatments. In this application, we are requesting support for some components of a new microscope that we have acquired which will allow a large number of researchers to investigate various aspects of cell biology, using live cell imaging on a spinning disk confocal microscope.