MRI: Acquistion of a Confocal Microscope for research and teaching

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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.