Acquisition of a Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope

摘要得克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校的索菲亚·帕西博士(PI)、格罗弗博士、马歇尔、威尔克和纳尔逊博士(Co-PI)以及阿诺特、伯里森和史密斯博士(高级人员)获得了一笔赠款，用于购买一台共焦扫描激光显微镜。该仪器将用于广泛的应用，包括分子的亚细胞定位；监测离子通道聚集模式；细胞骨架可视化；发射指纹、3D重建和生物膜中梯度的检测。这些不同的研究工作背后的统一主题是寻找有机世界中结构和功能之间的关系，这仍然是生物学中最基本的问题之一。设备将用于以下研究：1)生物膜时空动力学，作为物种扩散、生长和竞争的小规模最近生态过程的产物，以及剪切力和营养限制的最终广泛环境约束的产物；2)淡水浮游生物和底栖生物中发展的活藻类群落的光谱指纹图谱，以开发一种新的生物监测方法；3)控制鱼类对环境刺激的心血管和呼吸反射的化学和神经机制；4)通过对精子细胞骨架的光学切片来三维重建精子的形状和结构，以评估精子形状的变化对精子运动和竞争的影响；5)通过构建组织工程支架来支持和调节神经元的再生，从而实现脊髓和周围神经的再生；6)细菌用来建立和维持镁离子稳态的分子机制，以及破坏这些机制的后果；7)参与离子通道调节的细胞内通路，以及在慢性疼痛和炎症条件下，通道功能状态的变化如何影响细胞功能。该显微镜还将为开发新的分子细胞学研究生课程提供基础，并加强现有的课程，如湖沼学和生理学。德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校的生物系已经建立了一个专门的显微镜设施-电子显微镜中心，在那里，几代研究人员和学生接受了培训，探索有机和非生物微宇宙的奇迹。在这个设施中增加一个共焦显微镜将为新的和跨学科的研究开辟新的途径，这并不令人惊讶，因为共焦显微镜技术在20世纪80年代初才开始商业化，其用途主要限于医学研究。因此，生物学中仍有许多未被探索的领域，从生理学和信号转导到水生生态和进化，这些领域将极大地受益于共焦显微镜提供的新方法。

ABSTRACT A grant has been awarded to Dr. Sophia Passy (PI), Drs Grover, Marshall, Wilk, and Nelson (Co-PIs), and Drs Arnott, Burleson, and Smith (Senior Personnel) from the University of Texas at Arlington to purchase a confocal scanning laser microscope. The instrument will be used for a broad range of applications, including subcellular localization of molecules; monitoring ion channel clustering patterns; cytoskeleton visualization; emission fingerprinting, 3D reconstruction, and detection of gradients in biofilms. The unifying theme underlying these diverse research endeavors is the search for a relationship between structure and function in the organic world, which remains one of the most fundamental questions in biology.The equipment will be employed for the study of: 1) biofilm spatio-temporal dynamics as a product of small-scale proximate ecological processes of species dispersal, growth, and competition, and ultimate broad-scale environmental constraints of shear stress and nutrient limitation; 2) spectral fingerprinting of live algal communities developing in the freshwater plankton and benthos for the purpose of developing a new biomonitoring approach; 3) chemical and neural mechanisms that control cardiovascular and ventilatory reflex responses to environmental stimuli in fish; 4) three-dimensional reconstructions of sperm shape and structure through optical sectioning of the sperm cytoskeleton to assess the influence of variation in sperm shape on sperm motility and competition; 5) spinal cord and peripheral nerve regeneration by fabricating tissue engineered scaffolds that deliver drugs, proteins, growth factors, and DNA to support and regulate neuronal regeneration; 6) molecular mechanisms used by bacteria to establish and maintain Mg2+ homeostasis, and the consequences of disrupting these mechanisms, and 7) intracellular pathways involved in the regulation of ion channels and how alterations in the functional state of channels affect cellular functions under conditions of chronic pain and inflammation. This microscope will also provide the basis for the development of a new graduate course in Molecular Cytology and enhance existing courses such as Limnology and Phycology. The Biology Department at the University of Texas at Arlington has well established a specialized microscopy facility, the Center for Electron Microscopy, where generations of researchers and students have received training and explored the wonders of the organic and nonliving micro-cosmos. The addition of a confocal microscope to this facility will open new avenues for novel and interdisciplinary research, which should come as no surprise given that confocal microscope technology only became commercially available in the early 1980s, with its use largely limited to medical studies. Hence, there are still a number of unexplored fields in biology, ranging from physiology and signal transduction to aquatic ecology and evolution, which will vastly benefit from the new approaches that confocal microscopy offers.