CORE D - INTEGRATED MICROSCOPY CORE

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The Integrated Microscopy Core has been an important resource for this U54 Center for Reproductive Biology from its inception over 35 years ago. The Core, enabling routine and sophisticated light microscopy (LM) and electron microscopy (EM), has significantly supported all four Projects in the last funding period, and continues to be an integral support component of the current proposal. The Core has provided LM and EM resources, training and services for a wide range of biological projects. These include the longstanding general imaging of histological and ultrastructural specimens, and over the years has evolved to provide an increasing number of integrated image-based approaches that bring together biochemistry, cell biology, molecular and genetic studies (e.g., interaction, expression levels, immunological, epitope-tagging, reporter gene studies, etc). The most recent technological shift has been to increased implementation of automation and highly quantitative functional and cytological measurements obtained through the installation of high throughput microscopy (HTM) equipment. Effectively, the ability of the Integrated Microscopy Core now provides not only the routine and advanced imaging resource, but is increasingly bringing to the forefront high throughput systems biology as a Research & Development tool to bring new technologies to the U54 Projects. HTM will be critical for the investigators in this U54 application. The focus of the research in this U54 renewal application is the investigation of the role of co-regulators, transcription factors, cell signaling and micro RNA in the regulation of endometrial and ovarian function in the mouse and human. All these approaches will utilize imaging as a tool to evaluate endometrial biology. The execution of the aims of these projects will require the core to be an evolving tool.