UC Merced Acquires Zeiss Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope

The University of California, Merced, has acquired a Zeiss LSM 880 laser scanning confocal microscope for its imaging and microscopy facility.

“Within UC Merced, this is by far the most advanced, state-of-the-art light microscope,” said professor Anand Subramaniam.

In order to obtain the system, Subramaniam and her team had to convince the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) that it was among the university’s top research priorities.

“The proposal written by Professor Subramaniam and his colleagues was clearly identified as the best of the group by a panel of faculty peers at the university,” said Vice Chancellor for Research Sam Traina.

“With ORED’s endorsement, Subramanian and company next had to convince the National Science Foundation that UC Merced was deserving of a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award.”

The grant was awarded last September.

Previously, UC Merced researchers seeking access to comparable equipment had to travel to microscopy facilities housed at Stanford or UC Berkeley. More than just inconvenient, in some cases it was impossible. Some samples are too sensitive to travel; others might survive the journey only to yield data unfit for publication.

“It’s important to have multimodal imaging capabilities,” Subramaniam said. “Most confocals are optimized for biological science research — think squishy, wet things — or materials sciences, with hard things like glass and ceramics. We needed something that could do both”

The confocal has six lasers that allow for multicolor imaging. It also has the latest Airyscan technology, a feature that minimizes signal loss and brings resolution down to 110 nm, allowing the microscope to discern details other confocals cannot.

Scientists use confocals because they can capture still images in very quick succession, essentially producing a movie of microscopic processes in action. Typically, there’s a trade-off between speed and resolution. The Zeiss LSM 880 microscope mitigates that problem, providing high-speed, high-resolution dynamic imaging.