Scientific EMU: acquisition of microscope for intravital imaging

• Grant number: 22/11531-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Infrastructure Program - Technology and Innovation
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2030
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Francisco Rafael Martins Laurindo
• Grantee: Francisco Rafael Martins Laurindo
• Host Institution: Instituto do Coração Professor Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini (INCOR). Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (HCFMUSP). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Adriana Castello Costa Girardi ; Edecio Cunha Neto ; José Eduardo Krieger
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/19263-6 - Analysis of biological samples by intravital multiphoton microscopy, BP.TT

Abstract

The InCor Microscopy Facility is a center that aims to provide services of high technical and scientific relevance inan open and functional way to the scientific community of the University of São Paulo and to other national andinternational institutes. The present project aims to modernize the equipment park of this facility, located atInstituto do Coração (InCor), through the acquisition and availability of a confocal microscope with non-linearoptics, which enables intravital imaging. Such a tool will be essential for the facility to take an exponentialqualitative leap, by enabling the analysis of various molecular and cellular processes in vivo, in specific organs, inaddition to several other cutting-edge applications. The claimed system represents the state of the art in the areaand is an innovative, high-capacity emerging technology, which is likely to be standard in a short time. The systemshould bring substantial gains in imaging diverse biological processes in multidisciplinary areas of research (egpathology, physiology, developmental biology, pharmacology, agroscience, etc). This new confocal and multiphotonmicroscopy platform (STELLARIS 8 DIVE, Leica Microsystems) is a major technological leap, as it integrates in asingle system: lasers and detectors with a wide range of visible and near infrared spectrum, highly sensitivedetectors capable of single photon count, and non-linear optimal system. This tool allows the acquisition of imageswith very high resolution, from fixed or live samples, but mainly enables the intravital imaging of various tissuesand organs of small animals, labeled or not to fluorophore and/or dyes in general. The possibility of in vivoimaging, in particular, brings many advantages and represents a quantum leap in biological inference capability.Thus, this system, as outlined here, is state-of-the-art technology at an international level and should enable usersand, by extension, the scientific community in the state of São Paulo and nationally, to "catch the train" of methodsthat should become routine in the near future, matching and even anticipating the best international centers. (AU)