# Spinning-Disk Confocal Microscope for Wide-Field, Super-Resolution, and Live-Cell Imaging

> **NIH NIH S10** · UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER · 2022 · $600,000

## Abstract

Project summary
This application requests funding for the purchase a Nikon CSU-W1 SoRa Spinning-Disk Super-Resolution
Confocal Microscope to support 28 NIH-Funded research projects by 16 major and 7 minor users at the
University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC). The requested system has four solid state lasers and a wide
field of view and can image frame rates up to 200fps. The imaging speed and light efficiency of the CSU-
W1 SoRa equipped with an environmental chamber and piezoelectric stage make it ideal for live cell
imaging, an area of growing interest at KUMC. The increased optical resolution afforded by the microlensing
of the SoRa unit together with the additional 3D deconvolution package will enhance spatial resolution
capabilities to 120nm with minimal phototoxicity, and will benefit a number of investigators interested in
capturing intracellular dynamics in a variety of subcellular systems (e.g., mitochondria, cytoskeleton,
exosomes, vesicular trafficking, autophagy, cell-signaling, axonal remodeling, and primary cilia). No other
spinning-disk confocal microscopes are present on the KUMC campus, and recent decommissioning of
several obsolete confocal systems has led to a critical need. This system will be housed in space designed
for and dedicated to confocal microscopy. The CSU-W1 SoRa will be integrated into our long-established
Imaging Facility, fully staffed by 2 senior scientists with extensive technical expertise in confocal microscopy
and image analysis. Adjacent rooms provide dedicated space for administration, histological preparation,
and digital processing on high content image analysis workstations with NIS-Elements software. The
Imaging Facility has been successfully facilitating research at KUMC for over 40 years and currently serves
about 140 active users. The CSU-W1 SoRa will provide tangible benefit to a large number of programs at a
time when recent growth of NIH-funded research at KUMC, coupled with recent reductions confocal
capacity, have led to a critical need.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10415611
- **Project number:** 1S10OD032207-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Peter G Smith
- **Activity code:** S10 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $600,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-15 → 2023-08-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10415611

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10415611, Spinning-Disk Confocal Microscope for Wide-Field, Super-Resolution, and Live-Cell Imaging (1S10OD032207-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10415611. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*