A laser-scanning system for radioisotope-labeled, multi-fluorescent, chemifluorescent and colorimetric imaging

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Funds are requested to purchase a general-purpose, state-of-the-art laser scanning imaging system, to be used by multiple research programs in the Department of Biological Sciences. The instrument is a replacement and upgrade of an existing scanning system that has become inoperable and nonfunctional. The proposed instrument has broad applicability for many research purposes, being capable of detecting radiolabeled molecules through phosphorimaging (e.g., P-32, S-35, C-14), and detecting fluorescence signals with blue, green or red lasers, thereby producing images or quantitating data with high accuracy over five orders of magnitude of signal. Experimental techniques enabled by the instrument include the following: biochemical assays and hybridization blots based on radioactive detection; Southern, northern and western blots based on fluorescence detection, scanning of fluorescence data from glass slides or microtiter plates with a resoution of 10 micrometers; 2D DIGE (differential gel electrophoresis) for proteomic applications; and quantitation of visibly stained gels (Coomassie blue, silver). The eight applying labs have quite diverse research programs in the fields of RNA biology (group II introns and reverse transcriptases), structural biology (viral polymerases), plant metabolism (natural bioproduct chemistry), plant physiology (cell signaling, growth), yeast cell biology (cell wall structure and synthesis), developmental biology (limb development of mice), stem cell biology (germ line differentiation in worm) and cancer biology (breast stem cells). Additional labs in the building and department are expected to utilize the instrument because of its great versatility and applicability for many research purposes.