MRI: Acquisition of Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) for Multidisciplinary Research and Education at Fordham University

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An award is made to Fordham University for the acquisition of a BD FACSMelody (BYG 6-Color Plate 4 way) fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) for a multiuser facility in the Chemistry Department at Fordham University. Acquisition of a state of the art instrument such as FACS will improve the research infrastructure and advance faculty research and training programs of students and postdocs across two campuses. It will enhance collaborative research opportunities between the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Psychology and Natural Sciences as well as the broader community. It will also expose a growing cohort of undergraduate science majors to a powerful experimental tool in biochemistry. Students and faculty from minority institutions, including local community colleges and high schools, conducting research at Fordham will greatly benefit from learning such advanced techniques. In addition, it will help provide meaningful research and hands-on experience to undergraduate students through investigative laboratory experiments as part of the recently established Biochemistry minor and aid in expanding the Biochemistry program. It will enhance student’s ability to understand intricate cellular mechanisms, and provide them with the skills and scientific acumen to join the STEM workforce and participate in the society as scientifically literate individuals. Additionally, faculty plan on outreach activities such as creating podcasts for local senior citizen organizations so that the community’s vulnerable population can become more aware about cellular and physiological processes involved in diseases. Furthermore, workshops for local high school students will be held. These activities will promote recruitment, retention, and professional development of a diverse STEM workforce. The instrument will facilitate interdisciplinary research in key areas including tissue engineering, single-molecule biophysics, protein engineering, environmental science, neuropsychology and neuroscience. It will provide a cutting-edge multi-user instrument with high sensitivity for quantitative and qualitative investigation of a variety of cell populations in a high-throughput manner. FACS is a crucial tool for the separation of desired cell populations in high purity and analysis of single cells based on cell markers, size, and interactions. FACS is also the only purification technique to isolate and sort cells based on intracellular protein expression in a rapid and highly efficient manner. Thus, the FACS instrument will be employed in a variety of projects that include examining stem cell differentiation pathways at cell-biomaterial interfaces, investigating the molecular mechanisms of high-fidelity and error-prone DNA replication in bacteria, studying the environmental impacts of novel ionic liquids, examining cellular uptake of engineered peptides, studying the behavior of neuronal populations in transgenic zebrafish, examining the effects of stress hormones on leukocytes, as well as elucidating the mechanism of viral entry and trafficking to reduce HPV related infections. The research afforded by the instrument will allow Fordham faculty to make substantive contributions to a variety of important developing areas of biotechnology. As an institution in one of the most diverse cities in the country, the FACS instrument will provide an exceptional opportunity to impart high-quality research and teaching to a diverse student population at Fordham.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.