Acquisition of Confocal Microscope

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This award is for the acquisition of a confocal microscope for neuroscience research. Two research projects using this microscope are planned. The first project is to develop a new method of imaging synaptic inhibition in the brain and a new way of visualizing the functional architecture of inhibitory circuitry in the granule layer of the cerebellar cortex. The second project is to investigate the localization and modulation of a transcription factor found in a variety of cell types. This microscope will allow talented undergraduate students to become early and active participants in the community of scientific scholars. The microscope will enhance undergraduate biology research in a department where more than half of the biology majors are female. This microscope will also be situated in an ethnically diverse region; ethnic minorities make up one-third of the Storm Lake, Iowa community and 51% of the public school system. An outreach goal is to bring underrepresented minority students and their teachers from the local and regional community onto campus and into science.