Dual-band fibered confocal fluorescence microscope for the intravital interrogation of deep tissues and organs in real time and with cellular resolution

MoSAIC, the KU Leuven core facility for non-invasive live animal imaging, is currently the only center in Flanders (and Belgium) that is operating an intravital fibered confocal fluorescence microscope (FCFM). This technology is unique in that it allows to image fluorescently labeled cells, processes and structures that are located in deeper sites, tissues and organs, in real-time and with cellular resolution. Because it is minimally invasive, this fiber-optic approach for micro-endoscopy allows to repeatedly interrogate processes and cells in small animals, and therefore capturing the true kinetics of processes that are essentially dynamic in time and space. The current system for intravital FCFM is at the end of its lifetime and is limited to one laser for green fluorescence microscopy. We here apply for a replacement of the current single-band system with the next generation dual-laser system. The possibility to perform intravital FCFM with green and red fluorescence simultaneously, has an enormous added value for our current applications ànd opens up a plethora of new possibilities, involving the imaging of interactions between two processes, cell types, labeled biomolecules… and all combinations thereof. This has applications in many different and virtually all biomedical research domains, such as pneumology, infection and inflammation, diagnosis, neuroscience, gastrointestinal disorders, cancer research and more, as illustrated by our multidisciplinary consortium.

Keywords:Intravital fibered confocal fluorescence, deep tissue/organ imaging, cell-cell-interactions, host-pathogen interactions, Biomedical Research

Disciplines:Immunology not elsewhere classified, Image-guided interventions, Neurological and neuromuscular diseases, Infectious diseases, Respiratory medicine, Cell therapy, Cancer therapy