CAREER: Multiplexing Light-Field Microscopy for Cell Biological Research

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。该奖项授予佐治亚理工学院，以建立生物光子学和先进显微镜领域的综合研究和教育基础设施创新。这一职业项目将促进成像科学和技术的发现，促进跨学科基础设施的发现和培训，以及科学界和代表性不足群体在STEM中的更广泛参与。该项目寻求通过基础生物学方面的技术突破和新知识，并最终通过转化研究，改变依赖于传统生物传播学方法的生物学研究。为了扩大这项工作的教育影响，国际科学教育研究所将(1)通过校园内或在线资源优先招募妇女和少数族裔本科生和研究生参与这一项目，(2)通过组织亚特兰大生物光子学和高级光学显微镜国际学校，将研究和教育结合起来，(3)开发创新的教学方法，以加强以问题为基础的教育，提高公众的科学素养，以及(4)通过加强学校与实验室的互动和举办生物光子学夏令营，让未被充分代表的群体和退伍军人参与STEM。这些努力将影响下一代生物学家、成像工程师和专业人员的培训，并促进不同学科的研究和教育的交叉融合。在过去的几十年里，荧光显微镜已经成为生物研究最重要和最具信息量的驱动力之一。因此，人们越来越需要发展基础设施，以满足生物发现方面尚未得到满足的需求。作为回应，该项目解决了显微镜创新和细胞生物学研究之间的关键接口。特别是，这项研究将通过开发多路复用光场仪器和方法-MUX-LFM来推进活细胞成像。人们正在寻求MUX-LFM平台来改造目前的细胞显微镜基础设施，通过一个统一的架构实现功能、结构和种群的活细胞询问。这一基础设施的进步将使广泛的细胞生物学研究朝着对分子、亚细胞和细胞程序的系统水平的理解迈进。这一结果将激励未来的技术创新，激发重大的生物学洞察力，并为更广泛的科学、工程和技术突破创造方法路径。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).An award is made to Georgia Institute of Technology to establish integrated research and educational infrastructure innovation in biophotonics and advanced microscopy. This CAREER project will catalyze the discovery of imaging science and technology, the transformation of cross-disciplinary infrastructure for discovery and training, and the broader participation of scientific communities and underrepresented groups in STEM. The project seeks to transform biological investigations relying on conventional biophotonic methods, through technical breakthroughs and new knowledge in fundamental biology and, ultimately, translational research. To broaden the educational impacts of the work, the PI will (1) prioritize and recruit women and minority undergraduate and graduate students to work on this project through on-campus or online resources, (2) integrate research and education by organizing an Atlanta international school on biophotonics and advanced optical microscopy, (3) develop innovative teaching and learning methods to enhance problem-based education and improve the public scientific literacy, and (4) engage underrepresented and veteran groups in STEM by enhancing school-lab interactions and through a summer camp on biophotonics. These efforts will impact the training of next-generation biologists, imaging engineers, and professionals and promote cross-fertilization of research and education from diverse disciplines. Over the past decades, fluorescence microscopy has emerged as one of the most vital and informative driving forces for biological research. Infrastructure developments have therefore been increasingly demanded to cope with the unmet needs of biological discovery. In response, this project addresses the critical interface between microscopy innovations and cell biological research. In particular, the research will advance live-cell imaging by developing multiplexing light-field instrumentation and methods – mux-LFM. The mux-LFM platform is being pursued to transform the current cell microscopy infrastructure, realizing functional, structural, and populational live-cell interrogations through a unified architecture. This infrastructural advance will enable broad cell biological research toward a systems-level understanding of molecular, subcellular, and cellular programs. The results will inspire future technology innovations, stimulate significant biological insights, and create methodological pathways for broader science, engineering, and technology breakthroughs.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.