MRI: Acquistion of a Confocal Microscope for research and teaching

杜奎恩大学被授予支持购买尼康A1Rsi共焦显微镜的奖励。该仪器将是来自杜肯校园内两所不同学院和三个不同系的22名教职员工研究的核心。它将在大学预科、本科生和研究生的教育和专业发展中发挥核心作用。教职员工致力于培养下一代科学家，杜奎恩大学是一所授予博士学位的机构，拥有强大的博士项目。接触到共焦显微镜无疑将有助于这些博士生的培训。显微镜将在五门不同的本科实验室课程中支持本科教育，每年培训大约80名本科生学习先进的显微镜技术。本科生将接受培训，并鼓励他们在主要研究项目中与教师合作，使用共焦显微镜系统来支持他们的工作。教师们还致力于通过我们持续的大学前充实活动，为少数族裔和服务不足的学生提供大学前充实活动，例如i)为匹兹堡公立学校的高中生提供初级研究经验，ii)与黑兹伍德夏令营计划中的中学生分享科学活动，以及iii)制作针对大学前学生的数字媒体和科学节目，旨在激发人们对科学和研究的热情。此外，还将与匹兹堡第一个也是唯一一个社区生命科学实验室--公民科学实验室合作，开发一项新的大学前浓缩活动。这将为大学预科学生和公众提供共焦显微镜培训讲习班，每年约有60人参加。这些培训计划的目标是促进各级学生对STEM学科的热情、理解和保留。共焦显微镜将被广泛用于支持22名终身教职、独立资助的教师的基础研究活动，每个教师都指导有意义的研究计划，这些研究计划将显著促进他们选择的领域的知识。在过去，教员们工作效率很高，在过去的10年里成功地发表了42篇使用共焦显微镜的文章。该仪器支持的所有研究项目都有能力改变其领域，包括专门研究：i)细胞生长和运动，ii)生物发育和细胞间通讯，iii)细胞内物质的膜运输和移动，iv)遗传突变、细胞结构和基因表达的分析，v)神经生物学，vi)免疫反应，以及vii)细菌群落结构。因此，使用这种显微镜的学术价值将对科学界产生广泛的影响。

An award is made to Duquesne University to support the purchase of a Nikon A1Rsi confocal microscope. This instrument will be central to the research of 22 faculty from two different colleges and three different departments on Duquesne's campus. It will play a central role in the education and professional development of pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate students. The faculty are committed to training the next generation of scientists, and Duquesne University is a PhD granting institution, with a robust doctoral program. Access to the confocal microscope will undoubtedly aid in the training of these PhD candidates. The microscope will support undergraduate education in five different undergraduate laboratory courses training approximately 80 undergraduate students a year in advanced microscopy techniques. Undergraduates working with faculty in their primary research projects will be trained and encouraged to use the confocal microscope system in support of their work. The faculty are also committed to providing pre-college enrichment activities for minority and underserved students through our ongoing pre-college enrichment activities, such as i) providing high school students from Pittsburgh Public Schools with primary research experiences, ii) sharing science activities with the middle-school aged children in the Hazelwood Summer Camp program, and iii) producing digital media and science programming targeted to pre-college students and designed to inspire enthusiasm about science and research. Furthermore, a new pre-college enrichment activity will be developed in partnership with the Citizen Science Lab, Pittsburgh's first and only community life sciences laboratory. This will provide confocal microscopy training workshops for pre-college students and the public, engaging approximately 60 people per year. The goal of these training programs is to promote enthusiasm, understanding and retention in STEM disciplines for students at all levels.The confocal microscope will be used extensively to support the fundamental research activities of 22 tenure-track, independently funded faculty, each directing meaningful research programs that will significantly advance knowledge in their chosen fields. In the past, the faculty have been highly productive and successfully published 42 articles in the past 10 years that employ confocal microscopy. All of the research projects supported by this instrument have the capacity to transform their fields and include studies devoted to understanding i) cell growth and movement, ii) organismal development and cell-cell communication, iii) membrane transport and movement of material inside the cell, iv) analyses of genetic mutants, cell structure and gene expression, v) neurobiology, vi) immune responses, and vii) bacterial community structure. Thus, the intellectual merit for the use of this microscope will have broad reaching implications for the scientific community.