MRC WIMM bid - Maintain and expand capabilities of the MRC WIMM Wolfson Imaging Centre with a Zeiss LSM 980 confocal microscope.

Light-microscopic imaging of a broad range of specimens (like fixed or live cells and tissues, organoids, spheroids and embryos, even small animals like mouse and zebrafish) has become an integral part of interdisciplinary biomedical research. Across Oxford this imaging demand is most efficiently met by a range of multi-user core imaging facilities with staff that provide expert support and training for a broad range of advanced microscope equipment. The Wolfson Imaging Centre at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM) was set up in 2012 and serves as the sole advanced light microscope facility for over 500 researchers at the MRC WIMM, but also for those from the JR Hospital site as well as users across the University who seek an expertise (e.g. STED or FLIM) that is not provided at other facilities across Oxford.
The MRC WIMM Wolfson Imaging Centre provides 12 advanced light microscopes and serves in excess of 230 registered users from greater than 60 independent research groups from RDM, NDM, Oncology, Biochemistry, DPAG, Pharmacology, Plant Sciences, Dunn School, and Kennedy Institute. The average accumulated monthly use is greater than 60 users for an accumulated monthly time of about 1,200 hours. Since 2012 more than 100 papers that relied on Centre equipment have been published, including in journals such as Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Cell Biology, Blood, and more.
The most frequently used instruments at the Centre are the confocal microscopes with 800-900 hours per month. The aim of this application is to address the need to replace one of the facility's most used instruments, a Zeiss LSM780 (145 individual users in the last 5 years, and used at 185 hours/month on average), which has become unreliable and has reached the end of its use. We are seeking to replace this much used instrument with a newer and enhanced model (LSM980) to keep meeting the high demand at the WIMM Imaging Centre, while also adding new imaging capabilities.

The aim of this application is to address the need to replace one of the MRC WIMM Imaging Centre's most used instruments, a Zeiss LSM780 (145 individual users in the last 5 years, on average 185 hours of usage per month), which keeps breaking and appears to have reached the end of its lifetime. The impeding loss of that instrument would severely impact ongoing research by putting more time constraints on the remaining 4 instruments and forcing users to work out of core working hours at night or over weekends. We are therefore seeking to replace this much used instrument with a newer and enhanced model to keep meeting the high demand at the facility. The new instrument would enable a broad range of translational science in the institute's five core research areas of rare diseases, haematology, immunology and infection, stem cells and developmental biology and cancer biology. While the MRC HIU with 16 research teams (>160 scientists) studies the immune system to enhance human health, the MRC MHU with 14 research teams (>100 scientists) investigates blood formation and inherited and acquired blood diseases. Over the last 10 years, the Imaging Centre has provided the equipment and expertise for over 100 papers in high-impact journals, even during Covid lockdown, the facility continued to provide support for essential ongoing research at the institute. As such, the microscopes at the Imaging Centre are of very high value to a large research community and their upkeep and replacement when in need is of high importance.