Intravital two-photon microscope

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 452487071

Here we apply for funding for a “Forschungsgroßgerät nach Art. 91b GG“ to obtain an intravital two-photon microscope at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).Two-photon microscopy provides significant advantages for 3D-imaging of cells or organs ex vivo and especially for analyses in vivo. Major advantages of two-photon excitation are reduced phototoxicity, superior tissue penetration as well as lower scattering leading to reduced background signals. Therefore, two-photon microscopy is ideally suited for intravital imaging of the liver, kidney, skin and vessels. We are applying for an inverted microscope system that facilitates simultaneous imaging of more than three colours over a broad wavelength range and allows to discriminate between signals with similar emission spectra. The requested two-photon microscope should be highly-sensitive and equipped for imaging of fast biological processes.The application is led by the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine and submitted together with fourteen scientists from the university hospital. The applicants represent the four Collaborative Research Centers (SFBs) currently present at the UKE (SFB 841, SFB 1140, SFB 1192 und SFB 1328) as well as the SFB 877 with substantial contribution of scientists from the UKE, the clinical research groups KFO 296 and 306 as well as new collaborative research projects in preparation.Dr. Carsten Deppermann will be the scientist in charge to supervise the applied microscope system. He was recently recruited from Paul Kubes’ laboratory at the University of Calgary, Canada that is one of the leading laboratories using intravital two-photon microscopy. Dr. Deppermann was trained extensively in imaging of the mouse liver, spleen and kidney and will provide the required methods and expertise.We plan to integrate the requested microscope into the existing UKE „Microscopy Imaging Facility“ (UMIF, registered DFG research infrastructure, RI_00489) to provide access to intravital two-photon imaging to all scientists at the UKE campus. A comparable microscope does currently not exist in our core facility. The skilled UMIF personnel will ensure the continuous operation of the two-photon microscope and will train users in working with the system. We are convinced that the requested two-photon microscope will offer all scientists at the UKE and their collaboration partners exciting new possibilities for state-of-the-art intravital imaging and will make a lasting contribution to cutting-edge biomedical research.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Zweiphotonenmikroskop für die Intravitalmikroskopie
• Instrumentation Group: 5090 Spezialmikroskope
• Applicant Institution: Universität Hamburg
• Leader: Professor Dr. Thomas Renné