MRI: Acquisition of a Zeiss LSM980 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope with Airyscan 2 for Microscopy Core Facility

授予纽瓦克罗格斯大学购买蔡司LSM980激光扫描共聚焦显微镜和AiryScan 2。蔡司LSM 980将被集成到生物科学系(DBS)的高级成像核心设施(AICF)中，这是一所服务于纽瓦克罗格斯大学和高等教育机构的核心大学设施。显微镜的安装提供了迫切需要的仪器，这将对罗格斯-纽瓦克大学产生无可置疑的积极影响，作为一个具有广泛使命的支柱机构，改善和推进STEM教育、培训和推广。收购蔡司LSM 980将通过在每年招收600名学生的核心生物学课程中刺激为期六周的生物成像实验室系列的开发，从而启动生物学本科课程的改进。使用面对面和虚拟的教/学策略，学生将能够在多维成像方面获得令人振奋的第一手体验。星展银行将在顶石实验室的显微镜课程中增加实际操作的激光共聚焦成像。为了接触到更广泛的本科生和研究生受众，领导团队将与罗格斯-纽瓦克的NSF-LSAMP、NIH-G-RISE和罗格斯-NASA太空赠款联盟项目合作，引入使用蔡司LSM 980的多维成像。预计这种方法将鼓励更多的本科生参与研究，特别是URM学生，并鼓励追求STEM职业。罗格斯-纽瓦克分校的STEM教师有着与美国化学学会项目SEED和纽瓦克公立学校合作的悠久传统，为城市高中生提供动手实验室体验。显微镜检查往往是这种体验的关键部分。领导团队致力于通过为期4周的夏季沉浸项目Run-Image和学年项目Aim High NPS-NorthStar Academy将荧光成像的奇迹带给当地的高中生。这些项目中的每一个都将受益于依赖蔡司LSM 980和AICF中的其他显微镜的实际操作和虚拟成像。蔡司LSM 980加入AICF将在多个方面产生社会影响。向各级学生介绍先进的成像技术将提高学生的科学素养，并建立对科学发现和应用过程的理解。这将对未来产生积极影响，因为美国公民被要求做出重要的社会决定，这取决于对科学的理解。此外，蔡司LSM 980将加强罗格斯-纽瓦克大学聘用和留住顶尖教师的能力，他们的研究和教学技能将增加罗格斯-纽瓦克大学的教育、培训和外展。LSM 980将为生物科学领域的新教师提供必要的现代研究仪器，这对于成功获得校外资助和发表同行评审的工作至关重要。Zeiss LSM 980与Airyscan 2一起提供了最先进的显微镜工作站，提供多维荧光成像和超分辨率研究能力。该显微镜将支持对神经细胞、肠上皮细胞和细菌细胞中细胞信号和膜蛋白分离机制的基础研究。蔡司LSM 980将使研究人员能够将新型荧光报告蛋白与创新的遗传动物和体外细胞/器官模型结合使用，以跟踪小GTP酶和转录因子在调节细胞和组织分化和维持方面的动态和调节功能。超分辨荧光成像和光操纵将被用来发现在大分子复合体组装中新的蛋白质-膜和蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用，这些大分子复合体调节细菌膜中的脂质运输、细胞表面受体的组装和细胞内信号复合体的分选，在周围神经系统的髓鞘形成过程中，以及在哺乳动物中央的胚胎发育过程中。蔡司LSM980将用于最先进的光遗传学实验，以了解细胞骨架-染色质相互作用在基因表达和表观遗传学中的重要作用。此外，该显微镜还将用于提供细胞信号和重塑路径的多维荧光成像，这些信号和重塑路径是在创伤(包括撞击、拉伸、辐射和化学伤害)造成的组织和细胞损伤时激活的。所有研究项目都与高中、本科生、研究生和博士后的STEM教育/培训完全结合在一起，为提高STEM素养和未来的领导能力奠定了基础。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An award is made to Rutgers University – Newark to acquire a Zeiss LSM980 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope with Airyscan 2. The Zeiss LSM 980 will be integrated into the Advanced Imaging Core Facility (AICF), of the Department of Biological Sciences (DBS), a core university facility that serves Rutgers and institutions of higher education in Newark. Installation of the microscope provides critically needed instrumentation that will have an unquestionable positive impact at Rutgers-Newark as an anchor institution with broad mission to improve and advance STEM education, training, and outreach. Acquisition of the Zeiss LSM 980 will initiate improvement in the undergraduate curriculum in Biology by stimulating development of a six-week long biological imaging laboratory series in a core biology course that enrolls 600 students annually. Using in-person and virtual teaching/learning strategies, students will be able to have an exhilarating first-hand experience at multi-dimensional imaging. DBS will add hands-on laser confocal imaging to a capstone upper division laboratory course in microscopy. To reach a broader undergraduate and graduate student audience, the leadership team will work with NSF-LSAMP, NIH-G-RISE, and Rutgers-NASA Space Grant Consortium programs at Rutgers-Newark to introduce multi-dimensional imaging using the Zeiss LSM 980. It is anticipated that this approach will encourage increased undergraduate participation in research, particularly URM students, and encourage pursuit of STEM careers. STEM faculty at Rutgers-Newark have a long-standing tradition of partnering with American Chemical Society Project SEED and Newark Public Schools to provide urban high school students with hands-on laboratory experience. Microscopy is often a key part of that experience. The leadership team is invested in bringing the wonder of fluorescence imaging to local high school students through the 4-week summer immersion program RUN-IMAGE and the academic year program Aim High NPS-NorthStar Academy. Each of these programs will benefit from both hands-on and virtual imaging relying upon the Zeiss LSM 980 and other microscopes in the AICF. The addition of the Zeiss LSM 980 to the AICF will have societal impacts on multiple fronts. Introducing advanced imaging to students at all levels will improve science literacy and build an understanding of the process of scientific discovery and application. This will have a future positive impact as US citizens are asked to make important societal decisions dependent upon an understanding of science. Further, the Zeiss LSM 980 will strengthen the ability of Rutgers-Newark to hire and retain top-shelf faculty whose research and teaching skills will add to education, training, and outreach at Rutgers-Newark. The LSM 980 will provide new faculty in the biological science with an essential modern-day research instrument that is vital for success in obtaining extramural grant funding and in publishing peer-reviewed work.The Zeiss LSM 980 with Airyscan 2 provides a state-of-the-art microscopy workstation that provides multi-dimensional fluorescence imaging as well as super-resolution research capacity. The microscope will support fundamental research examining the mechanisms of cell signaling and membrane-protein sorting in neural, intestinal epithelial, and bacterial cells. The Zeiss LSM 980 will enable researchers will use novel fluorescent-reporter proteins in conjunction with innovative genetic animal and in vitro cell/organoid models to follow the dynamics and regulatory function of small GTPases and transcription factors in regulating cell and tissue differentiation and maintenance. Super-resolution fluorescence imaging and photo-manipulation will be used to discover novel protein-membrane and protein-protein interactions in the assembly of macromolecular complexes that regulate lipid transport, assembly of cell surface receptors, and intracellular sorting of signaling complexes in bacterial membranes, during myelin formation in peripheral nervous system, and embryonic development in mammalian central. The Zeiss LSM980 will be used in state-of-the-art optogenetic experimentation on the important role of cytoskeleton-chromatin interactions on gene expression and epigenetics. Additionally, the microscope will be used to provide multi-dimensional fluorescence imaging of cell signaling and remodeling pathways activated in response to tissue and cell injury from trauma including, impact, stretch, radiation, and chemical insult. All the research projects are fully integrated with STEM education/training of high school, undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral students serving as the foundation for improved STEM literacy and future leadership.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.