# An Abberior Instruments STED Microscope for Subdiffraction Super Resolution Imaging

> **NIH NIH S10** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA · 2020 · $909,120

## Abstract

Project Summary
To advance the ongoing NIH funded research at UC, Santa Barbara an Abberior Instruments
STED confocal microscopy system for super-resolved images of fixed or live 3D samples will be
acquired. The proposed instrument will surpass the conventional optical resolution limits of
confocal microscopy and will allow detection of structures down to 50 nanometers resolution in
the sample plane and 100 nanometers in the depth direction. The STED super-resolution method
uses stimulated emission depletion, an all-optical method, to resolve details smaller than the
diffraction limit. In the STED method a standard excitation beam is overlapped and aligned with
a longer wavelength torus shaped beam that red-shifts the fluorescence emission of fluorescent
molecules away from the standard emission peak. Only the remaining fluorescence at the center
of the torus emits in the normal emission range and is detected. The detected center spot can be
made arbitrarily small limited by laser intensity and fluorophore photobleaching.
After exploring upgrades and testing numerous systems, the researchers found that the Abberior
Instrument STED system was the best suited for supporting their research projects. From
preliminary data the STED system was found to successfully achieve super resolution in a number
of the Users samples. The increased spatial resolution is critically needed to further their research
goals including: identification of individual tau condensates, resolving unmyleinated axons, tracing
serotonergic fibers, colocalizing the PKD genetic disease product, and colocalizing protein-protein
interactions.
To enable the best use and long-term maintenance of the instrument the microscope would be
located in a full time staffed shared-use facility and will be available to all researchers on campus.
The instrument would enable not only ongoing campus research but also the development of
resources with broader impact.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9940654
- **Project number:** 1S10OD026792-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA
- **Principal Investigator:** Benjamin Jose Lopez
- **Activity code:** S10 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $909,120
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-08-15 → 2022-08-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9940654

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9940654, An Abberior Instruments STED Microscope for Subdiffraction Super Resolution Imaging (1S10OD026792-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9940654. Licensed CC0.

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