Confoal laser-scanning microscope

• Subject Area: Zoology
• Term: Funded in 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 580403813

In the competitive environment of cellular, molecular, biochemical, and morphological biosciences, Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) has long been considered a standard technique, which is also required by reviewers of high-ranking specialized journals, making efficient publishing inconceivable without appropriate equipment. A spectral, filter-free Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (CLSM) with a white light laser is requested here. It is intended as a multi-user device in the Imaging Center of the Biology Department, featuring a broad range of equipment to meet the diverse requirements of as many different projects as possible from the participating groups in the Biology Department at the University of Greifswald. The requested device replaces a CLSM that is now 15 years old, which ran with high utilization and delivered excellent results during its use. Despite high investments in repairs, the device is now severely limited in functionality and is to be decommissioned. All imaging devices of the Biology Department at the University of Greifswald are operated under the umbrella of a core facility, the "Imaging Center of the Biology Department," which is distributed across two different locations, Campus Soldmannstraße and Campus Beitzplatz, which are about 3 km apart. A CLSM, put into operation in 2020, is already present at the Beitzplatz location of the Imaging Center. This device is equipped with a resonant scan head, is located in an S2 area, and is primarily used for infection biology questions, including live-cell observation. With the upright and high-class equipped device with a white light laser requested here for the Campus Soldmannstraße location, as a replacement for the existing device, the competitiveness of the participating scientists, particularly those of the Zoological Institute focusing on questions of evolutionary morphology and functional morphology of arthropods, is to be further strengthened. The extensive equipment accommodates the various demands of both individual users from the participating research groups and other individual uses within the Biology Department, and it is intentionally designed to be open and modular for future questions, future techniques, and new dyes that the applicants will introduce.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Confokales Laser-Scanning Mikroskop (CLSM)
• Instrumentation Group: 5090 Spezialmikroskope
• Applicant Institution: Universität Greifswald
• Leader: Professor Dr. Steffen Harzsch