Multi-user High Performance Refrigerated Centrifuge

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A group of six researchers from various research disciplines within the Department of Biology at Dalhousie University seeks funds for a high capacity, high performance floor model refrigerated centrifuge. The requested instrument is essential to everyday laboratory operations and will be used for a multitude of applications including nucleic acid extraction, preparation of protein extracts, clearing homogenates and pelleting cells. The applicants and users represent early career and well established scientists whose research programs will sustain the operation and maintenance of the equipment for the foreseeable future. The scientific programs that would be supported by the centrifuge are in diverse areas. Those of the applicants include: regulatory role of ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation in plant development and response to environmental stresses (e.g. pathogens, drought and water scarcity); genetic and molecular basis of diapause (a state of physiological dormancy and enhanced stress tolerance) in Artemia embryos; impact of micronutrient availability on the physiology and biochemistry of marine microbial eukaryotes and bacteria; roles of selection and mutation in guiding the evolution of plant populations; biodiversity and evolution of free-living protists; role for voltage-gated sodium channels in health and disease. The instrument will therefore be used to study fundamental aspects of cell, molecular, development, evolution and environmental biology. The research supported by the requested equipment has the potential to make discoveries with direct benefits to Canada including significant contributions to the country’s agriculture and health sectors. The equipment will also facilitate experiments addressing basic research questions for the purpose of advancing knowledge. Reasons to fund the proposal include the large and diverse group of users, the excellence of the research programs, the current and potential capabilities for training of highly qualified personnel, the urgent need for the equipment, and the lack of any useful alternatives.