# ORD Shared Equipment Evaluation Program (ShEEP) (IS1) - Zeiss LSM980 Airyscan Confocal Microscope

> **NIH VA IS1** · VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION · 2021 · —

## Abstract

The VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (VATVHS), Nashville campus is requesting funds to purchase a
Zeiss LSM980 Airyscan confocal microscope. The LSM980 is a state-of-the-art point-scanning confocal
microscope with particular functionality for super-resolution, live cell, and large mosaic imaging. The LSM980
will be available for VA investigators and maintained by the Vanderbilt Cell Imaging Shared Resource (CISR).
The addition of this new instrument is crucial to support the ongoing research of eight VA investigators
represented as Major Users Projects in this proposal. These investigators all have active VA funding and
essential needs to advance research topics including diabetes, C. difficile infection, Inflammatory Bowel
Disease (IBD), extracellular matrix and fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), kidney
development, and gastric cancer. We expect that numerous other research programs at the VA and within the
wider Vanderbilt community will also benefit from this instrument; particularly those that require super-
resolution, live sample, and large tissue imaging. This Zeiss LSM980 Airyscan will offer dedicated confocal
hours for these VA researchers as well as greater resolution afforded by Airyscan and increased super-
resolution imaging speeds. We chose the LSM980 as a significant need for these 8 VA users based on three
main goals: 1) to provide additional confocal hours because existing CISR confocal microscopes are saturated,
2) to add a confocal microscope dedicated to VA investigators who need longer imaging sessions for large
samples and for live cell imaging, 3) to offer new capabilities including the latest generation Airyscan for 4x
faster super-resolution imaging and state-of-the-art detectors for increased sensitivity. The requested
instrument is configured based on the needs of the Major Users in consultation with PI Dr. Roy Zent and Cell
Imaging Shared Resource personnel. The full system includes the LSM980 confocal with state-of-the-art
GaAsP PMTs, Airyscan super-resolution module, incubation and environmental control, a variety of objective
lenses, 6 excitation lasers, and an acquisition workstation with ZEN 3.1 software. Significant consideration
was given to optical performance in choosing the variety of objective lenses to accommodate samples
including fixed or live cells, fixed or live tissue, and large optically cleared tissue. The latest generation of
detectors offers greater sensitivity for signal detection and gentle imaging for live cell experiments. The new
Airyscan2 module offers a separate detector to achieve resolution up to 1.7x greater than the limit of
conventional confocal microscopy. The environmental chamber equipped with 37 C incubation, 5% CO2, and
thermal drift correction allows live cell imaging from minutes to hours to overnight. Excitation lasers including
405, 445, 488, 514, 561, and 639 nm are appropriate for a wide range of modern fluorescent proteins and
dyes. These LSM980 acc...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10180502
- **Project number:** 1IS1BX005541-01
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
- **Principal Investigator:** ROY ZENT
- **Activity code:** IS1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-10-01 → 2021-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10180502

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10180502, ORD Shared Equipment Evaluation Program (ShEEP) (IS1) - Zeiss LSM980 Airyscan Confocal Microscope (1IS1BX005541-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10180502. Licensed CC0.

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