Research spectrofluorometer and microplate readuer

荧光照明和测量是当今在医学和生物科学中采用的最迅速扩展的技术，这一事实刺激了更复杂的荧光仪器和许多荧光染料的发展。荧光分光光度法现在已经成为现代生物学中许多应用的首选方法，用于测量大量样品中的平均荧光。该方法通常用于核酸（DNA和RNA）和蛋白质定量和纯度、ELISA、酶动力学、钙、pH、氯化物、钠、钾和其他可通过荧光染料测量的离子。活体彩色荧光蛋白（如GFP和珊瑚荧光蛋白）的可用性，以及将荧光染料与蛋白质缀合的容易性，对分子和蛋白质功能的研究变得越来越容易。尽管由于其现代化的实验室和设备，研究所的大多数实验室现在都可以使用这些技术。目前，该研究所有一台荧光酶标仪。然而，该仪器使用有限数量的滤波器组用于激发和发射，这对于许多应用（例如酶动力学和PicoGreen DNA检测）来说是不准确的。此外，每当一种新的荧光染料出现时，我们都需要购买昂贵的滤光片。如果获得批准，扫描荧光光谱仪的扩展可用性不仅为新的研究人员和学生打开了大门，而且还为端点，动力学和光谱等新应用打开了大门。提案中所述的许多不同项目说明了新项目的多样性，这些项目将在新设备的情况下变得可行，并表明新设备将得到广泛利用。

Fluorescence illumination and measurement is the most rapidly expanding technique employed today, both in the medical and biological sciences, a fact which has spurred the development of more sophisticated fluorescence instrumentation and numerous fluorescent dyes. Spectrofluorometry has now become the method of choice in many applications in modern biology to measure the average fluorescence in bulk samples. This method is commonly used for nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and protein quantitation and purity, ELISA, enzyme kinetics, calcium, pH, chloride, sodium, potassium and other ions that are measurable by fluorescent dyes. The availability of living colors fluorescent proteins such as the GFP and reef coral fluorescent proteins, and the ease of conjugating fluorescent dyes to proteins, investigations into the functionality of molecules and proteins has become increasingly accessible. Although these techniques are now accessible to most laboratories in the Institute because of its modern laboratories and equipments. Currently, one fluorescent microplate reader is available at the institute. However, this instrument uses a limited number of filter sets for excitation and emission, which is not accurate for many applications such as enzyme kinetics and PicoGreen DNA detection. In addition, whenever a new fluorescence dye comes out we need to buy expensive filters. If granted, the expanded availability of the scanning specrtofluorometer opens the door not only to new researchers and students, but also to new applications such as Endpoint, kinetic and spectrum. The many different projects described in the proposal illustrate the diversity of new projects, which will become feasible with new equipment, and demonstrate that the new equipment will be extensively utilized.