A COPAS BIOSORT Flow Cytometer for Caenorhabditis elegans Molecular Genetics

描述（由申请人提供）：一组由 NIH 资助的研究人员提议购买 COPAS BIOSORT 流式细胞仪，以加强他们对各种生物医学问题的研究。线虫秀丽隐杆线虫已成为研究与人类健康、发育和疾病直接相关的生物学问题的主要遗传模型系统。明尼苏达大学的研究人员处于该领域的前沿，并有幸管理着由美国国立卫生研究院国家研究资源中心支持的秀丽隐杆线虫遗传学中心。仪器和荧光蛋白研究的最新进展使线虫成为用于药物发现的正向或反向遗传学和化学生物学的更强大的系统。该应用程序旨在提供自动化仪器，以满足明尼苏达大学研究人员的三个关键研究目标。首先，购买流式细胞仪将大大加快使用线虫进行高通量表型筛选、基因组分析和生物化学的步伐。该仪器将使研究人员能够首次利用遗传学、RNAi 和化学生物学进行全自动筛选。其次，这种仪器将允许进行原本无法尝试的新颖屏幕。最后，该仪器将通过降低进入该领域的活化能，促进秀丽隐杆线虫社区成员与不同领域的当地研究人员之间的协作互动。自动化通过以下方式消除了大规模筛选中固有的关键瓶颈：(1) 建立大量精确分级线虫的平行培养物；(2) 从一系列实验测试条件中评估多个生物参数。曾经需要数年时间才能完成的工作，现在只需几天即可完成，并且使用流式细胞仪提高了灵敏度。 COPAS BIOSORT 流式细胞仪仅由美国 Union Biometrica 制造。 COPAS BIOSORT 已安装在世界各地的实验室中；然而，明尼苏达州没有这样的文书。需要所需的仪器，以便明尼苏达大学系统的研究人员能够继续进行秀丽隐杆线虫研究，其应用旨在了解（1）通过细胞信号传导控制种系发育，（2）发育时间的调节，（3）性别决定机制，以及（4）细胞粘附在肌肉和神经系统发育中的功能。 11

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A group of NIH-funded investigators proposes to acquire a COPAS BIOSORT flow cytometer to enhance their research on a wide range of biomedical problems. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has emerged as a major genetic model system for studying biological problems with direct relevance to human health, development, and disease. Researchers at the University of Minnesota are at the forefront of this field, and have the distinction of administering the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health-National Center for Research Resources. Recent advances in instrumentation and fluorescent protein research have made C. elegans an even more powerful system for forward or reverse genetics and chemical biology for drug discovery. This application seeks to provide automated instrumentation to meet three key research objectives for researchers at the University of Minnesota. First, acquisition of a flow cytometer will dramatically quicken the pace of high-throughput phenotypic screening, genomic analysis, and biochemistry using C. elegans. This instrumentation will enable researchers to conduct for the first time fully automated screens using genetics, RNAi, and chemical biology. Second, this instrumentation will allow novel screens to be undertaken that would not otherwise be attempted. Finally, this instrumentation will foster collaborative interactions between members of the C. elegans community and local researchers in diverse fields by lowering the activation energy for entering the field. Automation eliminates key bottlenecks inherent in large-scale screening by (1) establishing large numbers of parallel cultures of precisely staged nematodes and (2) assessing multiple biological parameters from an array of experimental test conditions. What once took years, can now be accomplished in days with enhanced sensitivity using the flow cytometer. The COPAS BIOSORT flow cytometer is manufactured only by Union Biometrica in the United States. The COPAS BIOSORT has been installed in laboratories throughout the world; however, there is no such instrument in Minnesota. The requested instrument is needed so that researchers in the University of Minnesota system can continue their high level of productivity in C. elegans research with applications aimed at understanding (1) the control of germline development by cell signaling, (2) the regulation of developmental timing, (3) the mechanisms of sex determination, and (4) the function of cell adhesion in muscle and nervous system development. 11