TauSCALE

TauSCALE - Infrastructure for multiphoton, super-sharp, super-sensitive and time-resolved confocal microscopy

Confocal microscopes are the beating heart of imaging core facilities, as evidenced also at the UHasselt Advanced Optical Microscopy Centre by continuously booked, but likewise aging systems. We apply here for a novel confocal microscope, the PicoQuant Luminosa. This system surpasses mainstream commercial confocal imaging by leaps and bounds. Uniquely equipped with pulsed lasers and time-resolved spatial detection it allows the most advanced fluorescence-based dynamic structural biology and molecular biophysics investigations. Methodologically, it offers multicolor (lifetime) imaging at never-before-seen image sharpness, as well as advanced single-molecule sensitivity. Unique software workflows allow both novice and expert users to apply quantitative dynamic functional microscopy in daily routine. Finally, it is ready to integrate a multiphoton laser. Complementing and, eventually, (1) replacing our flagship confocal allows meeting user demands and avoiding out-of-service situations, but additionally creates the unique and critical opportunity to (2) competitively valorize research, (3) support scientific excellence in core UHasselt research areas such as neurodegeneration, inflammation, lipid metabolism, plastic pollution and soot exposure, (4) boast inter-university collaboration, and, most importantly (5) consolidate the pioneering role of AOMC in dynamic structural biology in Flanders and EuroBioImaging.

Keywords: Core facility management, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, single-molecule imaging

Disciplines: Image processing, Spectroscopic methods, Biophotonics, Neurological and neuromuscular diseases, Toxicology, Multiple Sclerosis

Coordination:

• Jelle HENDRIX (Promoter)
• Jeroen BOGIE (Co-Promoter)
• Nelly SAENEN (Co-Promoter)
• Tim NAWROT (Co-Promoter)
• Sandrine DA CRUZ (Co-Promoter, KUL-VIB Neuroscience)
• Remy LORIS (Co-Promoter, VUB-VIB Structural Biology)
• Chloé MARTENS & Cedric GOVAERTS (Co-Promoters, ULB-Bruxelles)

Acknowledgement: Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, I002126N)

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