Public Higher Education Bulletin

New Microbiology faculty member, Dr. Ross requests the purchase of a Keyence Fluorescence Microscope so that continuity of ongoing research projects can be completed with the same Keyence Fluorescence MIcroscope that was utilized for her research projects at the University of Pennsylvania. The ongoing research accomplished with the Keyence Fluorescence Microscope pertain to: (1) imaging of subcellular compartments;,(2) internalization of virus particles into cells and trafficking to subcellular compartments; (3) co-localization of different cellular proteins; (4) automated quantification of virus infection levels using a colony-forming assay and (5) microscope has the functionality and specifications to quantify virus titers in an unbiased fashion.

Only the Keyence Fluorescence Microscope has digital all-in-one systems available that include a 14 bit monochrome CCD, built in dark room, automatic stage, automatic lenses, automatic filters, live cell incubation/video/time lapse image capture, fluorescence, phase contrast, and bright field observation modes. The compact size also maximizes lab space.

In addition, one of the strongest features of the Keyence Fluorescence Microscope is lost without the analysis software for cell counting, measurement. Keyence designs all of their intuitive software allowing users to analyze large amounts of data in minimal time. The advantage of high throughput image capture and analysis can only be achieved with Keyence software. The cell counting software allows one to quickly count cells as well as to quantify the area of certain points of interest on samples. This is particularly important for our virus titrations needed for all our projects. One of the features of this software that is unique only to Keyence is cell counting based on ?cell separation?. Typically cell counting software cannot recognize two distinct cells if they are touching. However, the Keyence software can accurately separate these cells and provide a cell count which can only be obtained otherwise by tediously counting the images by hand. This allows great accuracy for cell counting over larger sample sizes, and also saves a great deal of time. Having the Keyence software eliminates the need for multiple experiments that would have to be carried out with traditional methods, saving our lab time and money. The multitude of analytical methods available with the Keyence Software adds a much needed capability to our lab. Additionally, other software available on the market would not be supported by Keyence. The advantage of obtaining both Keyence hardware and software is to ensure smooth operation and to eliminate compatibility issues.

By acquiring Keyence hardware and software, Keyence Corporation can provide expert support for all of our imaging needs from capture to analysis.

This microscope is used to get unbiased virus titers from mice infected with murine leukemia virus at monthly intervals after infection. This microscope also allows us to do many samples in a single experiment (high throughput acquisition and analysis); 2) determine the subcellular localization of and protein-protein interactions between different cellular nucleic sensors. Many of the signals from these studies are weak and in multiple Z planes; the automated scanning features and high sensitivity camera.

The University has determined that this purchase is only economically available from this source because the items are required for research and no other source is able to meet the researcher's documented needs.