Upgrading the Optical Facilities of the Biology Department at the City College of the City University of New York

纽约城市学院的生物学家正在申请相应的资金，以升级他们的研究并提供新的光学设施。需要资金购买：1)一台透射式电子显微镜；2)一台倒置荧光显微镜；以及3)一台共聚焦激光扫描显微镜。我们还希望对经常使用的数字扫描电子显微镜(DSEM)进行升级。新的电子显微镜将取代目前的电子显微镜，即21年前购买的Phillips 300，后者作为研究仪器的价值有限，因为它不能产生回答许多当代研究问题所需的图像。目前，我们迫切需要一台倒置荧光显微镜和一台共聚焦激光扫描显微镜。我们蔡司数字扫描显微镜的现阶段是有效使用该仪器的瓶颈。目前阶段一次只能采集一个标本；我们必须在更换标本之间不断地往下压。新的工作台一次可容纳5个存根(标本托架)。它也是自动化和数字化的。这将允许研究人员制作蒙太奇。它还将使研究小型生物和细胞的研究人员能够通过在内存中存储来标记感兴趣的标本的位置，以便可以重新定位、研究和拍摄最好的标本。在新设备的帮助下，研究领域相当广泛，涵盖神经生物学、分子发育遗传学、免疫生物学、原生动物学、分子系统学、内细胞生物学和进化等领域。更具体地说，以下项目将得到援助：1)有孔虫内含硅藻共生体的吞噬体噬菌体加工；2)有孔虫的核运动和系统学；3)浮游硅藻的分子系统学；4)胸腺哺育细胞的表面表型；5)胸腺细胞和胸腺哺育细胞的接触；6)果蝇复眼的分子和遗传学分析；8)非洲爪蛙胚胎和变态神经系统轴突发育和连接专一性的分子机制；9)研究生长因子和神经递质在信号级联中的作用，视网膜通过信号级联调节巩膜的生长，当巩膜倾斜时，可能会导致近视。城市学院位于纽约市的哈莱姆区，其学生主要是少数族裔。许多学生在本科生和研究生研究中参与了拟议的调查人员。如果这项建议得到资助，人们完全预计少数族裔学生将参与研究本身，并产生影响，进入课程和培训的其他方面。

Biologists at the City College of New York are requesting matching funds to up- gradeand provide new optical facilities for their research. Requested are funds to purchase: 1) a transmission electron microscope (TEM); 2) an inverted epifluorescent microscope; and 3) a confocal laser scanning microscope. We also wish to upgrade the stage of a constantly used digital scanning electron microscope (DSEM).The new TEM will replace the present TEM, a Phillips 300 purchased 21 years ago, which has limited value as a research instrument because it is not capable of producing images required to answer many contemporary research questions. At present we have strong need for an inverted epifluorescent microscope and a confocal laser scanning microscope. The present stage on our Zeiss digital scanning microscope is a bottle neck for effective use of this instrument. The present stage takes only one specimen at a time; we must pump down between specimen changes. The new stage holds 5 stubs (specimen holders) at a time. It also is automated and digitized. This will allow researchers to make montages. It will also give researchers, studying small organisms and cells, the ability to mark positions of specimens of interest by storage in memory so that the best specimens can be relocated, studied, and photographed. The research aided by the new equipment is quite broad in aspect, covering fields such as Neurobiology, Molecular Developmental Genetics, Immunobiology, Protistology, Molecular Systematics, Endocytobiology, and Evolution. More specifically the following projects will be aided: 1) Phagosome- phagolysosomal processing in diatom- bearing endosymbioses in foraminifera; 2)Karyokinesis and systematics of foraminifera; 3) Molecular systematics of planktonic diatoms; 4) Ce ll surface phenotypes of thymic nurse cells; 5) Contact between thymocytes and thymic nurse cells; 6) Molecular and genetic analysis of the Drosophila compound eye; 8) Molecular mechanisms underlying axonal development and connection specificity in the embryonic and metamorphosing nervous system of the frog Xenopus Iclevis; and 9) Studies of growth factors and neurotransmitters involved in the signal cascade by means of which the retina modulates growth of the sclera which, when awry, can lead to myopia. The City College is located in theHarlem section of New York City.and its student body is predominantly minority. Many students are involved with the proposed investigators in undergraduate and graduate research. Should this proposal be funded, there is every expectation that minority students will be involved in the research itself, and the fallout which enters other aspects of coursework and training.