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

We are requesting funds to purchase a Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscope setup that will permit the study of single molecules (high spatial resolution) and fast membrane dynamics (high temporal resolution) on the surface of cells, isolated organelles and fabricated membranes. We plan to build this new TIRF microscope by upgrading an existing wide-field epifluorescence microscope workstation with lasers, a TIRF controller, specialized objective lenses, filter cubes, and software; this is the most cost effective way to bring this technology to Concordia University for the first time. This equipment will be primarily used to study the fundamental mechanisms that drive biological membrane partitioning; fusion and fission; protein sorting in context to endocytosis, receptor recycling and second messenger signaling; synaptic plasticity; cytoskeletal reorganization; cell division; and the immune response. This TIRF microscope will be available to the entire Concordia research community and will also be used, for example, to examine surface patterning of nanoparticles and nanocarrier internalization by human cancer cells - in support of Concordia's growing nanotechnology program. Although this equipment is essential for our research programs, Concordia University does not have a TIRF microscope on campus. Thus, we must transport delicate samples to off-site pay-for-use facilities at the Université de Montréal and McGill University; unfortunately many of our samples do not survive the trip across town preventing us from performing critical experiments altogether and thus hindering the our ability of research programs to compete at an international level. This microscope setup will support collaborative, multidisciplinary research between members of our diverse scientific community bridging physiology, neuroscience, immunology, oncology, biophysics and nanotechnology. This equipment will ensure that the nearly 23 young scientists in our laboratories (and > 300 personnel that will have access to this microscope) will get high-quality training in modern microscopy techniques allowing them to make major contributions to Canada's competitive academic and industrial sectors in nanotechnology and medicine.