Acquisition of Flow Cytometry and Light Microscopy Facility at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

这笔拨款支持购买设备，以显着升级马萨诸塞州伍兹霍尔科学界现有的设施，用于微生物种群、组织培养、微观颗粒的光学表征，和/或依赖于可视化这些组合和成分的过程。申请资金用于购买一台Becton Dickinson FACSCalibur流式细胞仪和蔡司倒置光显微镜和图像分析设备。这些仪器对于伍兹霍尔海洋研究所（WHOI）和海洋生物实验室（MBL）的科学工作人员的广泛应用是必不可少的和补充的。光学显微镜设备将包括两个冷凝器系统，以适应一系列放大和标本支架，一个用于在实验或原位温度下检查标本和培养物的温度控制阶段，一个用于建立培养物和细胞系的微操作系统，冷却CCD相机，用于记录颗粒大小，丰度和其他特征的高质量图像分析软件，特别是非常低的荧光信号。已购买的流式细胞仪是该领域“主力”的最新版本，以其可靠性和多功能性而闻名。该仪器将配备一个分选器，用于化学/生物分析或培养起始的微生物组的验证分类，以及一个旋转装载器，用于多个样品处理和混合。之所以选择这些特定的仪器，是因为它们结合了(1)对微生物或粒子的高度互补的测量，(2)它们是伍兹霍尔科学界目前能力的重大进步，(3)它们是用户友好的，因此将比这种性质的更复杂但更专业的设备有更广泛的用途，(4)它们的运行和维护成本低，因为潜在用户数量更多。显微镜和流式细胞仪设备将直接受益于WHOI和MBL内至少24个实验室的研究项目。它们的可用性将解决WHOI常用设备长期存在的缺陷，它们将有利于成功完成总计50多个联邦和其他赠款、合同和奖励的项目。

This grant supports the acquisition of equipment to significantly upgrade facilities available in the Woods Hole, Massachusetts scientific community for optical characterization of microbial populations, tissue cultures, microscopic particles, and/or the processes dependent on visualizing these assemblages and constituents. Funds are requested for the purchase of a Becton Dickinson FACSCalibur flow cytometer and Zeiss inverted light microscope and image analysis facility. These instruments are essential and complementary for a wide array of applications among the scientific staffs of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL). The light microscopy facility will include two condenser systems to accommodate a range of magnifications and specimen holders, a temperature-controlled stage for the examination of specimens and cultures at experimental or in- situ temperatures, a micromanipulation system for establishing cultures and cell lines, cooled CCD camera, high quality image analysis software for documentation of particle sizes, abundances, and other characteristics, particularly very low fluorescent signals. The flow cytometer that has been purchased is the latest version of the `workhorse' of the field, known for its reliability and versatility. This instrument will be equipped with a sorter that will allow verification sorting of microbial groups for chemical/biological analyses or culture initiation, and a carousel loader to enable multiple sample processing and mixing. These specific instruments have been chosen because they combine (1) highly complementary measurements of microscopic organisms or particles, (2) they are major advancements over the present capabilities within the Woods Hole scientific community, (3) they are user-friendly and will therefore have much wider use than more sophisticated but more specialized equipment of this nature, and (4) they are cost- efficient to run and maintain becaus e of the larger number of potential users. The microscopy and flow cytometry facilities will be a direct benefit to the research programs of at least two dozen laboratories within WHOI and MBL. Their availability will address long-standing deficits in the common use equipment at WHOI, and they will favorably affect the successful completion of projects totaling more than 50 federal and other grants, contracts, and awards.