MRI: Acquisition of a Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope for Research and Instruction at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution

MRI：购买激光扫描共焦显微镜用于主要本科机构的研究和教学

• 批准号: 1920069
• 负责人: Ajay Srivastava
• 金额: $ 37.73万
• 依托单位: Western Kentucky University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-10-01 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1920069&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; Laser; Scanning; Confocal

An award is made to Western Kentucky University for the acquisition of a Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope for research and instruction at a primarily undergraduate institution. The microscope will build imaging capacity at WKU and in the Southern Kentucky region. It will not only impact the research projects of several faculty members who train Graduate (Masters) and Undergraduate students in their laboratories but also enhance the student learning and research experience. The students will present their findings at the local Student Research Conference and at regional and national meetings. They will also disseminate their findings in the form of refereed publications. The exposure of students to this routine yet state-of-the-art technique and the dissemination of acquired data will benefit their research careers by making them competitive for graduate programs. An existing undergraduate Developmental Genetics, Cell Biology and Microscopy course will incorporate this technique and expose students to this state-of-the-art imaging. Additional courses at graduate and undergraduate level will develop modules for this technique as well. To engage and attract young scientists into choosing careers in the sciences, we will offer teachers and students from local high schools opportunities to visit the facility and learn firsthand the power of confocal microscopy. Additionally, rising high school junior and senior students from the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at WKU will also benefit from the availability and technical capabilities of this microscope as several of these students conduct research in the laboratories of the PIs who spearhead a variety of research projects. The microscope will be made available to other regional academic institutions on a fees per use basis and will be advertised at the regional conference organized by the Kentucky Academy of Science. Furthermore, professors and their students within the Kentucky Community and Technical College System will have opportunities to visit the facility for a demonstration of the Confocal Microscope and its capabilities. Confocal microscopy is routinely utilized by biologists to understand the localization of gene products (proteins and RNA) within a cell in space and time. It also provides valuable insights into the cellular and tissue architecture of developing living systems at resolutions far superior to conventional fluorescence microscopy. Acquisition of this state-of-the-art microscope will impact WKU faculty projects in diverse fields ranging from the Cell and Developmental Biology of fruit flies, Microbiology, Neurobiology of Zebrafish, Endocrinology, Plant Biology, Immunolocalization of proteins in Chlamydomonas to Nanotechnology. The confocal microscope will expand capability and capacity in the Southern Kentucky region and enable students to be part of high caliber research projects. Cellular localization of proteins, generation of high resolution cellular images and understanding mechanisms involved in normal development will all be possible with this microscope, thereby exposing students to sophisticated research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

向西肯塔基大学颁发了奖励，以在主要的本科机构中收购激光扫描共聚焦显微镜进行研究和教学。显微镜将在WKU和肯塔基州南部地区建立成像能力。它不仅会影响培训毕业生（硕士）和实验室本科生的几位教职员工的研究项目，还可以增强学生的学习和研究经验。学生将在当地学生研究会议以及区域和国家会议上介绍他们的发现。他们还将以被裁判的出版物的形式传播他们的发现。学生接触这种常规但最先进的技术以及获取数据的传播将使他们的研究职业受益，从而使他们在研究生课程中有竞争力。现有的本科发展遗传学，细胞生物学和显微镜课程将结合此技术，并将学生暴露于此最新成像中。研究生和本科级别的其他课程也将为该技术开发模块。为了吸引并吸引年轻科学家在科学中选择职业，我们将为当地高中的老师和学生提供参观该设施的机会，并亲眼学习共焦显微镜的力量。此外，来自WKU的Gatton数学与科学学院的高中生和高级学生也将从该显微镜的可用性和技术能力中受益，因为这些学生中的一些学生在PIS的实验室进行了研究，这些PIS率先率先进行了各种研究项目。显微镜将以每次使用费用向其他区域学术机构提供，并将在肯塔基州科学院组织的区域会议上做广告。此外，肯塔基州社区和技术学院系统中的教授及其学生将有机会参观该设施，以展示共聚焦显微镜及其能力。生物学家通常会使用共聚焦显微镜来了解基因产物（蛋白质和RNA）在时空中的定位。它还为在分辨率上开发生命系统的细胞和组织结构提供了宝贵的见解，远优于传统的荧光显微镜。获取这种最先进的显微镜将影响WKU教师项目的不同领域的WKU教师项目，从水果蝇的细胞和发育生物学，微生物学，斑马鱼的神经生物学，内分泌学，植物生物学，植物生物学，蛋白质蛋白质的免疫定位到chlamydomonas in Chlamydomonas的免疫定位到纳米技术。共聚焦显微镜将扩大肯塔基州南部地区的能力和能力，并使学生能够成为高素质研究项目的一部分。蛋白质的细胞定位，高分辨率的细胞图像产生以及理解正常发育中涉及的机制都将在此显微镜下进行，从而使学生接受了复杂的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来支持的。