@rossry absolutely - the $5K microscope objective enables us to image around 10-15 embryos at the resolution we need without killing the embryos from phototoxicity. I've already validated these experiments on other microscopes, and these experiments have taken quite some time since we have to rent the system to collect the necessary data (which is quite expensive and we have to coordinate with other labs in the building). The high-throughput microscope can image 70-80 embryos at once with lower phototoxicity, so this is the ultimate goal so we can acquire large iterations of data in shorter amounts of time. I hope this makes a bit more sense!

@rossry great question -

Shore term: as of right now, the $5K minimum funding will be applied towards a microscope objective to co-opt our current system to work with mouse embryos. We currently do not have an objective capable of imaging at the correct magnification since my lab typically studies very small single cells instead of large multicellular embryos! These funds would, in the long run, make data acquisition much cheaper since we do not have to "rent" the current system per hour (and these experiments are multiple days!). Any additional funds will be applied to other pieces of equipment (UV cross-linker, blue light box, etc) and can make experiments more high-throughput to scale up the data collection to see if aged embryos can be rejuvenated in their developmental potential.

1 year goal: $20-30K (if funded) would be a down-payment for a microscope called the Embryoscope, which is an FDA approved microscope that is widely used in IVF clinics to screen through competent embryos. With this microscope we can once again use mouse embryos to characterize the system and phase these trials into human embryo data in collaboration with UCSF and Stanford medical schools.

2+ year goal: If we find that our data translates, this would be grounds for purchasing the high-resolution light sheet microscope with optogenetic capabilities. Our current data is only capable of roughly seeing "before" and "after" optogenetic rescues and can be combined with careful embryonic staging, synthetic implantation assays, and implantation quantification. We'd ultimately want to see the continuum of events, so how the embryo responds throughout these stages and not just during snapshots in between.

Thank you for your question!