Acquisition of a Confocal Microscope for New Research and Teaching

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An award is made to Wesleyan University to support the acquisition of a confocal microscope for use by faculty and students across multiple departments and disciplines. The new instrument will profoundly enhance the training environment and be used during many highly interactive laboratory courses taught by Wesleyan faculty to promote STEM career advancement. The proposed microscope will be housed in an advanced imaging facility that includes scanning and transmission electron microscopes. To support dissemination of science to the general public, as exemplified by the large number of articles authored by Wesleyan faculty that are printed in the popular media, data generated by the new system will be used in outreach presentations, science camps, local high-schools, an annual scientific imaging student prize, and similar forums. Wesleyan boasts an unusually broad portfolio of research topics that will benefit from the new system, including evolution and development of morphology, optogenetic-based control of behavior, cell biology, physiology, developmental neuroscience, and chromosomal dynamics. Each of these areas is experiencing an expansion of research into spatial relationships, driven by advances in microscopy, and by the realization that researchers must study three-dimensional shapes and how those change over time to understand the structure and function of biological systems. Several of the research projects will only be possible because the local availability of the system. Data and analyses from these studies will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, presented at scientific meetings, and used in both educational and public outreach activities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.