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Scientists depend on cutting-edge technology and deep collaborations to advance their research. FAU’s Brain Institute offers them both, thanks in part to its renewal as a Nikon Center of Excellence (COE), which began in 2016.

Being a COE gives researchers across FAU, and partner establishments, access to state-of-the-art imaging systems and joint ventures with world-renowned research institutions, as well as opportunities to shape the future of scientific imaging technology.

Nikon Centers of Excellence constitute an exclusive club that includes 13 prestigious facilities in the U.S., including Harvard University, Princeton University, The Scripps Institute of Research and other international facilities, like King’s College London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Members get Nikon’s most advanced imaging systems at significantly reduced costs, as well as free support. In return, Nikon solicits feedback from early-stage COE researchers who use Nikon equipment, in addition to exchanging knowledge about the researchers’ work. This collaborative effort enables Nikon to fine-tune their microscopes to match scientists’ evolving needs.

“In exchange for our willingness to allow Nikon to learn about our science and build the next generation of tools to better support the kind of research we do, they give us discounts on their instrumentation and free workstations to teach our scientists and students how to use their software, which is pretty sophisticated,” said Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D., director of the Brain Institute. “It’s very meaningful.”

The imaging systems at the COE are not just basic microscopes — they’re highly advanced. For instance, a super-resolution system allows researchers to peer inside living cells and record proteins interacting inside a mitochondrion. A two-photon microscope uses a laser tuned to the infrared range to deeply penetrate intact brain tissue and enables fluorescent tracking of cells and cellular processes in diverse tissue types (visualize a cop sticking a tracking device on a suspect’s car).

Erik Duboué, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biology at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, uses this two-photon microscope to study stress reactions throughout the whole brain, as opposed to a specific region. "This technology allows you for the first time to really get a comprehensive view of how the brain is working in vivo — you can literally get a global snapshot of how the entire central nervous system is responding to any stimulus,” Duboué said.

Jianning Wei, Ph.D., an associate professor of biomedical science in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, uses the COE’s confocal microscope to study genetic mutations that lead to Huntington’s disease, a rare inherited disease that causes the breakdown of cells in the brain. Her research on cellular function will help pharmaceutical manufacturers design a drug to prohibit or slow the progression of the disease.

As scientists delve deeper and deeper into nature’s complexity, they encounter mysteries that are best explored from multiple points of view. Having access to Nikon’s state-of-the-art technology enables FAU researchers to conduct the same experiments their collaborators are conducting at world-renowned institutions an ocean away.

“It’s not just the technology we have, but getting the FAU brand out there,” Blakely said. “The more scientists hear about us, the better. Being a Nikon Center of Excellence provides us with significant visibility through an internationally respected scientific instrumentation company. That puts FAU on the map — ”

And that’s a good map to be on.