MRI: Acquisition of a Leica TCS SPE confocal microscope for a shared facility to advance undergraduate research and teaching in the W.M. Keck Science Department

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An award is made to the W. M. Keck Science Department (Keck Science) of Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College, and Scripps College to acquire a Leica TCS SPE scanning confocal microscope. Keck Science serves students from three distinct, highly selective liberal arts colleges. A primary departmental goal is to offer a modern education in the sciences through hands-on, investigative, and hypothesis-driven learning. The new confocal capabilities will allow Keck Science faculty to modernize three existing advanced biology courses through specific learning outcomes involving fluorescence analysis of whole tissues, while incorporating current, investigative research projects. This confocal microscope will enhance the research program of numerous Keck Science faculty and their undergraduate students who are investigating a wide range of important topics across the sciences. In addition, it will facilitate exciting science outreach activities with the Scripps College Academy, an academic program developed to serve the needs of female students in Southern California from high schools in underserved areas. The Leica TCS SPE confocal microscope will substantially enhance the Keck Science research program by elevating current limits of conventional microscopic analysis to achieve high-resolution, fluorescence imaging of thick, intact tissues in 3-D, as well as real-time imaging of cellular processes in live tissues. The new confocal capabilities will dramatically improve ongoing research projects of undergraduate research students and their faculty mentors in Keck Science and nearby institutions in the fields of cell biology, genetics, neurobiology and evolution. These projects include fluorescence analyses of chromatin dynamics; effects of selfish genetic elements in insect tissues; investigations of neuronal structure and function in the avian model system, the zebra finch; and phylogenetically guided analyses of the fine structure and function of the teleost retina.