MRI/RUI-Acquisition of a Confocal Microscope for Multiple Users at UNCG

在Esther Leise博士的指导下，北卡罗来纳大学格林斯博罗分校（UNCG）获得了一笔赠款，用于购买一台共聚焦显微镜，作为UNCG生物系内多用户设备的焦点。共聚焦显微镜是荧光显微镜的一种增强形式，依靠激光照明和计算机图像形成来消除失焦和散射光，从而为用户提供前所未有的细节清晰度和信息提取能力，这是传统荧光显微镜无法复制的。该仪器将是UNCG和大格林斯博罗大都会地区的第一台共聚焦显微镜，将使UNCG的研究人员能够每天使用共聚焦显微镜，并定期培训学生使用这种最先进的显微镜方法。该共聚焦显微镜设备的主要用户包括Leise博士和来自生物系和营养系的另外6名首席研究员。所有的主要用户都有积极的研究项目，需要共聚焦显微镜来最大限度地提高他们的数据收集效率，并获得目前不可能用现有的大学显微镜设备提取的数据。所有主要用户的研究项目也涉及本科生和研究生的研究助理，因此每个实验室的学生将被指导使用共聚焦显微镜，并将有充足的机会获得获取和分析共聚焦数据的实践经验。主要用户的研究项目范围从分子到有机体，但都纳入调查基本的生物学问题。研究人员将利用共聚焦显微镜与广泛的模型系统和生物体一起研究生物发育过程中发生的基因表达和蛋白质定位的变化模式，分析培养细胞中亚细胞蛋白质运输和分布的动态，并了解更多关于有毒微生物的生命周期和地理分布。将共聚焦显微镜纳入细胞生物学实验室和遗传学实验室课程，每年将使大约250名本科生，包括相当数量的妇女和少数民族学生，接触到这种先进的显微镜仪器的有用性。共聚焦显微镜设备将改善UNCG正在进行的研究项目，并将加强该机构的教学使命。共聚焦设施还将通过促进至少两个部门的学生和教师之间的跨学科合作，影响校园生命科学系的更广泛使命。共聚焦显微镜设施还将把国家工作队的活动同格林斯博罗地区当地面向技术的企业联系起来。提高校园研究质量和为UNCG学生提供的教育经验将促进新的皮埃蒙特三合会生物技术倡议，并使UNCG学生在生物技术和生命与生物医学科学领域的职业生涯中更具竞争力。

A grant has been awarded to the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) under the direction of Dr. Esther Leise for the purchase of a confocal microscope as the focal point of a multi-user facility to be housed in and managed by the UNCG Department of Biology. Confocal microscopy is an enhanced form of fluorescence light microscopy that depends upon laser illumination and computerized image formation to eliminate out-of-focus and scattered light, thereby providing the user with unprecedented clarity of detail and information extraction capabilities that are impossible to replicate by traditional fluorescence microscopy. This instrument will be the first confocal microscope at UNCG and in the greater Greensboro metropolitan area and will allow researchers at UNCG to use confocal microscopy on a daily basis and to routinely train students in the use of this state-of-the-art microscopical method. The major users of this confocal microscope facility include Dr. Leise and 6 additional principal investigators from the Departments of Biology and Nutrition. All of the major users have active research programs that require confocal microscopy to maximize their data collection efficiency and to obtain data that is currently impossible to extract with existing university microscopy facilities. The research programs of all of the major users also involve undergraduate and graduate student research assistants, so students from each laboratory will be instructed in the use of the confocal microscope and will have ample opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in obtaining and analyzing confocal data. The research projects of the major users range from the molecular to the organismal, but all incorporate investigations into basic biological questions. Researchers will use confocal microscopy together with a broad range of model systems and organisms to study the changing patterns of gene expression and protein localization that occur during organismal development, to analyze the dynamics of subcellular protein trafficking and distribution in cultured cells, and to learn more about life cycles and geographic distributions of toxic microorganisms. Incorporation of confocal microscopy into Cell Biology Laboratory and Genetics Laboratory courses will expose some 250 undergraduates, including significant numbers of women and minority students, per year to the usefulness of this advanced microscopical instrument. The confocal microscope facility will improve ongoing research programs at UNCG and will enhance the teaching mission of that institution as well. The confocal facility will also affect the broader missions of campus life science departments by promoting interdisciplinary collaborations between students and faculty in at least 2 departments. The confocal microscope facility will also link activities at UNCG to local technologically-oriented businesses in the Greensboro area. The improved quality of campus research and educational experiences for UNCG students will promote the new Piedmont Triad biotechnology initiative as well as make UNCG students more competitive for careers in the fields of biotechnology and in the life and biomedical sciences.