Engineering Research Equipment: Total Internal Reflectance Fluorescence (TIRF) for Bioengineering at Interfaces

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9500468 Stebe The equipment grant provides funds to purchase equipment to construct a photon-counting total internal reflectance fluorescence (TIRF) apparatus and a TIRF microscope with video- digitization and photobleaching fluorescence recovery capabilities to establish the Laboratory for Bioengineering at Interfaces (LBI). TIRF methods are non-invasive, non- destructive, and well suited for kinetic studies, as real time data can be gathered on time scales ranging from seconds to hours. The fluorescence methods will be used to study dynamic events at interfaces in three research area: 1) interactions of proteins and block copolymers with engineered bilayers, 2) cellular adhesion and aggregation to biomimetic surfaces, and 3) protein adsorption at hydrogel-polymer interfaces in synthetic membranes. The work carried out as described is expected to produce fundamental knowledge in the field of molecular and cell dynamics at interfaces, and lead to new discoveries. ***