From standard light microscopes to advanced laser-based and electron microscopes, the imaging equipment inside VCU’s Microscopy Facility in the School of Medicine’s anatomy and neurobiology department forms an essential core for modern biomedical research.

Additionally, the facility is an outstanding resource for graduate and postgraduate training.

“This facility provides access to high-end instruments not typically available in most labs,” says associate professor Scott Henderson, Ph.D., who directs the facility. “When graduate students and postdoctoral fellows leave VCU to pursue future studies, they’re leaving with a level of training in imaging that is good for VCU’s reputation.”

Henderson is referring to the gamut of imaging equipment inside the Microscopy Facility. He is especially proud of two of the latest acquisitions provided from HEETF funds. A multi-photon (2-photon) laser-scanning microscope and its associated physiological recording equipment (in place since early 2007) are providing new insights for investigators at VCU.

The multi-photon laser-scanning microscope allows investigators to study samples three dimensionally by generating high-resolution optical slices through cells and tissues. Its standout feature, however, is its ability to delay phototoxicity, an inevitable nemesis for investigators dealing with live-cell and live-tissue imaging. Occurring when tissue is exposed to short wavelength light, phototoxicity results in cell damage and, ultimately, death.

“Investigators now have the ability to image living tissue and thicker slices of tissues over prolonged periods of time when that’s more advantageous,” says Henderson.

This is of particular consequence since activity of the Microscopy Facility includes support of research related to the central nervous system, specifically brain injury, central nervous system development, neurophysiology, neuroplasticity and neurodegenerative diseases. For many of these studies, it is essential that the tissue be maintained in a living state.

“Among other things, we’re studying the dynamics of molecules, looking at how molecules interact and their spatial distribution over time,” says Henderson. Before the 2-photon microscope, live-tissue studies were often limited to short durations, due, in part, to the phototoxic effects of repeated imaging. For studies over prolonged periods of time, investigators would often be obliged to image multiple static samples that had been chemically fixed at various intervals of time, he explains.

Combine 2-photon imaging with the associated physiological recording equipment, and the result is a high-performance system that gives investigators a precisely defined view of the material they are studying. The new equipment permits tandem 2-photon imaging and physiological recording of living tissues at greater depths over substantially longer periods of time.

Since 2004, HEETF has provided an estimated $700,000 worth of equipment. This equipment has supported research over the biomedical sciences’ spectrum. The equipment is also providing support for several research grant applications and renewals.

This speaks to one of Henderson’s primary messages. In addition to the advantage such advanced equipment offers in a shared facility, it also bolsters the grants process.

“The productive use of this equipment is a consideration before new high-end equipment is funded,” Henderson says, explaining that funding agencies, eager to know they will be supporting an already successful facility, are impressed when available resources can be used by many.

In 2006, more than 200 investigators representing 76 labs from 23 departments utilized the facility.

“We have a good track record as a shared resource,” says Henderson about the Microscopy Facility, adding that a number of investigators have successfully renewed competitive grants due, at least in part, to the availability of the equipment here.

“All of this equipment is helping to fine-tune research in neurosciences,” he says. “The technology is also facilitating other areas of medical research across multiple departments, including cancer research, development biology and human genetics.”