A light-sheet microscope for chemical and structural analysis of biofilms, tissue and organisms
Navn på bevillingshaver
Michael Kühl
Institution
University of Copenhagen
Beløb
DKK 2,500,000
År
2018
Bevillingstype
Research Infrastructure
Hvad?
An advanced laser light sheet-based microscope is established for detailed 3D imaging of the structure and the associated chemical microenvironment in natural biofilms, tissues and small organisms as well as in 3D bioprinted constructs of defined complexity and composition. The system is equipped with a white laser system and adjustable laser light sheet optics, which enables both micro- and macro-scopic imaging with extreme flexibility on a wide range of biological samples.
Hvorfor?
The infrastructure grant enables the introduction of novel state-of-art microscopy to Danish microbiology and marine biology. The new light-sheet microscopy platform will enable a wide range of novel research on biofilms, small organisms, as well as animal and plant tissue samples.
Hvordan?
The new instrument will be employed for mapping 3D cell/biomass distribution in natural biofilms/tissues and bioprinted constructs containing mixed populations of photosynthetic and heterotrophic microbes, in combination with mapping of 3D O2 and pH distributions via luminescent nanoparticles in the samples. It will become a central instrument in my research, e.g. for mapping microbes and chemical microenvironments in i) studies of plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere of aquatic plants, ii) studies of microbial interaction in stratified natural biofilms from coastal and extreme environments, and iii) studies of symbiont-host interactions in tissues of living corals, sea anemones and other aquatic photosymbioses.