This request is for funds to purchase a new Fluoview FV3000 confocal microscope capable of sensitive, high speed, live cell imaging for the School of Pharmacy. Basic and clinical research within the School has grown significanUy over the past decade. In 2018 the School was rated 11th in total research funding among all Schools of Pharmacy in the nation. US News and World Reports ranks our school 7th among all schools of pharmacy in the nation. Leadership in research is an important part of our mission. Access to high quality state-of-the-art instrumentation has contributed significantly to that growth. A new confocal microscopy system is necessary to meet the critical needs of our research faculty. Confocal microscopy has been essential to our research programs for many years. The existing system, an Olympus FV1000, was purchased 16 years ago with funds from an S10 shared equipment grant. The system is now deteriorating and lacks much of the functionality needed by current faculty. The old-style gas lasers have exceeded their life span and are failing. The computer system and software are vasUy out of date and cannot easily be replaced. Live cell imaging is not feasible with the current system. Also, scanners and detectors are much less sensitive and slow compared to current systems and lack many of the more recent improvements in optics, spectral frequency isolation, and scanning capabilities. Hence, the School is in great need of a new state-of-the-art, spectral, confocal system. The need is demonstrated by the large number of NIH-funded projects that have need of sensitive, high-resolution live cell imaging. Nine NIH-funded Pis within the School (13 co-investigators total) have identified a critical need for such equipment. Much of this work focuses on the identification and development of novel drug targets and therapies, as well as the development of novel materials for use in drug delivery systems, and focuses on detailed analysis of cells and organoids, or the uptake and trafficking of molecules and drugs within cells and tissues. Instruments are available elsewhere within the University, primarily at the University's Center for Biologic Imaging (CBI}. Unfortunately, CBI is not able to accommodate our needs. The 3-D culture systems being studied are very delicate and will not survive transport to another facility for imaging. The microscopes at CBI lack specialized lenses which our own in-house testing has shown are necessary to meet our needs. And CBI resources are in very high demand. Some of our experiments require time-lapse imaging for long periods of time. Users at CBI are limited to 3 hour time slots, which does not meet our needs. While special arrangements can be made, this limitation is not conducive to ongoing research. Acquisition of the requested instrument is necessary to support the NIH-funded research within the School, and will strengthen our position as a national leader in research.