Acquisition of a Variable-Pressure SEM: New Avenues in Collaborative Biologic, Paleontologic, and Museum Collection Research and Conservation for New York's Capital Region

一个由来自纽约首都地区的7名主要研究人员和9名辅助用户组成的联合体被资助用于配备能量色散X射线分析系统的变压场致发射扫描电子显微镜(VP-FESEM)。支持包括几个辅助仪器，包括临界点干燥器、冷冻干燥器和高分辨率铬溅射设备。主要研究领域包括：(I)解决骨骼起源的细胞生物学和分子方法；(Ii)最古老骨骼动物的微化石分类学和寒武纪进化辐射；(Iii)神经科学中的纳米技术；(Iv)线粒体在细胞死亡中的作用；(V)美国东北部史前农业的进化；(Vi)冰河后鱼类的扩散和聚集/群落结构。该仪器将在古生物学家、生物学家和博物馆馆长之间建立新的联系，研究网络可以追溯到5亿年的生物进化直到美洲原住民农业的发展。拟议中的工具的一个新方面是将纽约州两个庞大但截然不同的政府机构的研究学科合并：纽约州卫生部的旗舰研究机构沃兹沃斯中心和纽约州教育部的主要分支机构纽约州博物馆。因此，该仪器将有助于将生物科学和古生物学的基础研究人员与从事博物馆收藏品研究、保护和藏品数据传播的人员联系起来。这两个机构都有纽约州公民的主要教育任务，这项提案中的所有调查人员都做出了经过时间考验的地方、地区和全国外联承诺。

A consortium of seven principal researchers and nine auxiliary users from theNew York Capital Region are funded for a variable-pressure, field emission scanning electron microscope (VP-FESEM) equipped with an Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis System. Support includes several ancillary instruments including a critical point drier, a freeze drier, and a high-resolution chrome sputtering device. Major research areas to be addressed include: (i)cell biological and molecular approaches addressing the origins of the skeleton; (ii) microfossil taxonomy of the oldest skeletalized animals and the Cambrian evolutionary radiation; (iii) nanotechnology in the neurosciences, (iv) the role of mitochondria in cell death, (v) the evolution of prehistoric agriculture in the northeastern United States; and (vi) post-glacial fish dispersal and assemblage/community structure.This instrument will create new ties between paleontologists, biologists,and museum curators in a research web ranging back through 500 million years ofbiologic evolution up to the Native American development of agriculture. A novel aspect of the proposed instrument is the merging of research disciplines in two large but distinct New York State government agencies: The Wadsworth Center, the flagship research institution of the New York State Department of Health, and the New York State Museum, a major branch of the New York State Education Department. As such, the instrument will serve to link basic researchers in the biosciences and paleontology with those engaged in museum collection research, conservation, and dissemination of collection data. Both agencies have major education mandates to the citizenry of New York State, and all of the investigators in this proposal have time-tested local, regional, and national outreach commitments.