Acquisition of Transmission Electron Microscope for Biological Sciences

该提案要求为俄亥俄州大学生物科学系提供一个现代化的透射电子显微镜设施。该设施也作为大学的透射电子显微镜资源。所要求的显微镜将补充目前的16岁，学生级电子显微镜目前正在使用的教学和研究在这个部门的65名教师和80名研究生。升级后的设施将继续为在生物学和研究方面具有特殊才能的研究生和本科生提供培训。它也将用于超微结构研究。所有这些活动已经进行了25年;它们过去一直由两台透射电子显微镜支持，但旧的一台去年退役，剩下的一台显微镜也很旧，从未用于分析研究。 将利用该设施进行的研究包括几项关于肌肉的研究，如检查骨骼肌核质关系随年龄或活动变化的变化，检测骨骼肌损伤如何发生在肌纤维中，或探索膳食微量元素对心脏超微结构的影响。除了这些肌肉研究，神经生物学研究将包括内耳机械感受器的结构和计算研究，以及前庭控制头部运动的结构机制。另一个项目将使用时间推移和电子显微镜的组合来研究视网膜如何营养性地影响大脑视顶盖的发育。此外，亦会研究蚊子受感染及传播虫媒病毒的机制。还将对南极鱼类为降低其浮力密度而进化的形态适应进行超微结构研究，以及以有毒微生物为食如何影响海洋桡足类的消化结构和功能。 上面列出的大多数项目目前都得到了NSF的资助，并使用了多种方法的组合;所有这些方法都包括电子显微镜。现代透射电子显微镜的存在对这些项目至关重要。购买一台新的电子显微镜将进一步加强该部门的研究，因为有机会吸引更多的研究生和技术人员学习电子显微镜。它还将允许研究生使用更多样化的研究工具。拥有一台现代化的电子显微镜的总体效果将是提高该部门的培训能力、研究生产力和资助水平。

This proposal requests funds to provide a modern transmission electron microscope facility for the Biological Sciences Department of Ohio University. This facility also serves as the Transmission Electron Microscopy Resource for the University. The requested microscope will supplement the current 1 6-year-old, student-grade electron microscope currently being used for both teaching and research in this department of 65 faculty and 80 graduate students. The upgraded facility will continue to provide training for graduate students and undergraduates with special aptitude for biology and research. It will also be used for ultrastructural research. All of these activities have been carried out for the past 25 years; they have been supported by two transmission electron microscopes in the past, but the older one was decommissioned last year, and the remaining microscope is old and was never meant for analytical research use. Research that will be done with this facility include several studies on muscle, such as _ examining the changes in the nucleocytoplasmic relationship of skeletal muscle with aging or ' with changes in activity, detecting how skeletal muscle damage occurs in the muscle fiber, or exploring the effects of dietary trace elements on cardiac ultrastructure. Besides these muscle studies, neurobiological research will include structural and computational studies of mechanoreceptors in the inner ear, and the structural mechanisms underlying the vestibular control of head movements. Another project will use a combination of time lapse and electron microscopy to study how the retina trophically affects development of the optic tectum of the brain. The mechanism by which mosquitoes become infected and transmit arboviruses will also be investigated. Ultrastructural studies will also be done on morphological adaptations evolved in Antarctic fishes to reduce their buoyant density, and how feeding upon toxic microorganisms has affected the digestive s tructure and function of marine copepods. Most of the projects listed above are currently supported by NSF funding and use a combination of methods; all of them include electron microscopy. The presence of a modern transmission electron microscope is vital to these projects. Acquisition of a new electron microscope will further enhance research in the department because of the opportunity to attract more graduate students and technicians to learn electron microscopy. It will also allow graduate students to use a greater diversity of research tools. The general effect of having a modern electron microscope will be to enhance the training capabilities, the research productivity and the level of grant support to this department.