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

Microscopic imaging is vital to my laboratory's research programme. Our work is focused on normal structure and function of neural cells (neurons and supporting cells known as glia), how cells of the nervous system react to injury, and how potential treatments can halt damage or promote repair. For example, we have discovered a new sub-cellular structure (organelle) which we have named the loukoumasome (doughnut-like body), present in some nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system. Current work is aimed in part at determining the loukoumasome's composition in order to glean information about its function. In another line of investigation, we have found that cells of the peripheral nervous system grow new nerve fibres in response to spinal cord injury, possibly mediating some of the important secondary consequences of this debilitating condition such as pain and abnormal cardiovascular control. In another project we are investigating how an oxygen sensing protein is responsible for some of the responses of glial cells to spinal cord injury which prevent regeneration and contribute to neuropathic pain.All of this work requires high-resolution light (fluorescence) microscopy to investigate the fine details of e.g. loukoumasome structure, newly-grown nerve fibres and their contacts, and interactions between different types of glia, and between glia and neurons. This application is for a state-of-the-art imaging system (microscope, camera, computer and software) which will be able to operate not only at lower magnification for rapid image acquisition and processing (standard epifluorescence; this capability will replace an older defunct imaging system in my laboratory), but also at high magnification and high resolution (laser scanning confocal microscopy) to investigate the three-dimenstional structure of nerve cells and fibres, glial interactions, and the structure and contents of various cells of the central and peripheral nervous systems. This dual imaging system will allow us to solve mysteries about the basic workings of the nervous system and how it might be repaired.