A COPAS BIOSORT Flow Cytometer for Caenorhabditis elegans Molecular Genetics

描述（由申请人提供）：一组NIH资助的研究人员建议获得COPAS BIOSORT流式细胞仪，以加强他们对广泛的生物医学问题的研究。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这一领域的最前沿，并管理着由美国国立卫生研究院-国家研究资源中心支持的小杆线虫遗传学中心。仪器和荧光蛋白研究的最新进展使C。线虫是一个更强大的系统，用于正向或反向遗传学和药物发现的化学生物学。该应用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，流式细胞仪的获得将大大加快高通量表型筛选、基因组分析和使用C.优雅该仪器将使研究人员能够首次使用遗传学，RNAi和化学生物学进行全自动筛选。第二，这种仪器将使新的屏幕进行，否则不会尝试。最后，这种工具将促进C.通过降低进入该领域的活化能，elegans社区和当地研究人员在不同领域。自动化消除了大规模筛选中固有的关键瓶颈，方法是（1）建立大量精确分阶段线虫的平行培养物，以及（2）从一系列实验测试条件中评估多种生物学参数。曾经需要数年的时间，现在可以在几天内完成，并使用流式细胞仪提高灵敏度。COPAS BIOSORT流式细胞仪仅由Union Biometrica在美国生产。COPAS BIOSORT已在世界各地的实验室安装;但明尼苏达州没有这种仪器。所要求的仪器是需要的，以便在明尼苏达大学系统的研究人员可以继续他们的高水平的生产力在C。elegans的研究与应用旨在了解（1）通过细胞信号传导控制生殖系发育，（2）发育时间的调节，（3）性别决定的机制，以及（4）肌肉和神经系统发育中细胞粘附的功能。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