Acquisition of a Biological Electron Microscope and Digital Camera System

在苏珊·R·塞萨克博士的指导下，匹兹堡大学获得了一笔赠款，用于资助购买具有数字摄影系统和外部监视器的生物电子显微镜。这一仪器将使神经科学、生物科学和化学系的教师能够通过提供最先进的电子显微镜系统来实现和扩大他们的研究目标，该系统旨在提高分析复杂生物样本的效率和生产力，并以数字格式捕获图像。对于所有以生物为基础的科学来说，关于生物体的精细结构细节的知识对于了解它们的功能是必不可少的，而获奖的电子显微镜将是可视化这种超微结构的主要手段。该仪器还将用于确定驱动适应性反应的环境操纵如何改变结构。此外，超微结构方法将与其他技术相结合，以确定生物功能所必需的分子的形状、分布和运输。最后，该系统的数字格式将大大提高图像捕获和复制的效率，并极大地加强自然科学教师的培训任务。该奖项支持的教师分布在多个系，因此仪器设备将支持相当多样化的研究项目。简要的清单包括：连接大脑调节行为的区域的突触连接的超微结构研究，神经信号的细胞过程和可塑性，调节神经传递的分子的定位，大脑神经化学物质的微观分析监测，肌肉的生化过程，细胞器的合成和组装，蛋白质的细胞内分子运输，蛋白质和细菌病毒的合成、组装和结构，染色体的组装和分离，以及分枝杆菌和DNA肿瘤病毒的分子生物学。在进行这项研究的过程中，教师将把他们涉及仪器的实验研究与博士后、博士、本科生和高中水平的新科学家的培训结合起来。图像捕获的数字格式将在培训中特别有用，因为它将为教职员工和学生一起工作提供外部查看标本。该仪器还将用于教授细胞生物学和病毒学的课程。该项目的科学重要性源于这样一个事实，即它提供的仪器将促进大量知名研究人员的研究计划，他们的工作旨在提高对从病毒到人类的各种生物有机体的基本结构和功能的了解，包括正常和患病的细胞过程。该仪器的学术应用将有助于从传统代表性和代表性不足的群体中招聘和教育新科学家。这样的教育目标将确保理科学生进入社会时更好地欣赏生物结构和功能，并相信需要更多的研究来了解所有活着的有机体、环境以及人体和大脑的内部运作。最后，该仪器将加强整合研究和教学的基础设施，促进科学学科(如化学、生物学和神经科学)内部和跨学科的合作，并有助于在科学界和非科学界广泛传播超微结构研究的知识益处。

A grant has been awarded to the University of Pittsburgh under the direction of Dr. Susan R. Sesack to fund the purchase of a biological electron microscope with a digital photography system and external monitor. This instrumentation will enable faculty in the Departments of Neuroscience, Biological Sciences and Chemistry to achieve and expand their research objectives by providing a state-of-the-art electron microscope system that is designed to enhance the efficiency and productivity of analyzing complex biological specimens and to capture images in a digital format. For all biologically-based sciences, knowledge regarding the fine structural details of organisms is essential for understanding their function, and the awarded electron microscope will be a principal means for visualizing this ultrastructure. The instrumentation will also be used to determine how structure is altered by environmental manipulations that drive adaptive responses. Moreover, ultrastructural methods will be combined with other techniques to determine the shape, distribution and trafficking of molecules that are essential for biological functions. Finally, the digital format of the system will considerably increase the efficiency of image capture and reproduction and greatly enhance the training missions of faculty in the natural sciences. The faculty supported by this award are distributed across multiple departments, and so the instrumentation will support research programs that are quite diverse. A brief listing includes: ultrastructural investigation of synaptic connections that link brain regions regulating behavior, cellular processes and plasticity underlying neuronal signaling, localization of molecules regulating neurotransmission, microanalytical monitoring of brain neurochemicals, biochemical processes of muscle, synthesis and assembly of cellular organelles, intracellular molecular trafficking of proteins, synthesis, assembly and structure of proteins and bacterial viruses, assembly and segregation of chromosomes, and the molecular biology of mycobacteria and DNA tumor viruses. In the process of conducting this research, the faculty will integrate their experimental studies involving the instrumentation with the training of new scientists at the postdoctoral, doctoral, undergraduate, and high school levels. The digital format for image capture will be particularly instrumental in training, because it will provide external viewing of specimens by faculty and students working together. The instrumentation will also be used to teach courses in cell biology and virology. The scientific importance of this project stems from the fact that it provides instrumentation that will facilitate the research programs of a large number of well-established investigators whose work is designed to improve understanding of the basic structure and function of biological organisms ranging from viruses to humans and including both normal and diseased cellular processes. The academic applications of the instrumentation will facilitate both the recruitment and education of new scientists from both traditionally represented and underrepresented groups. Such educational objectives will ensure that students of science enter society with a better appreciation of biological structure and function and a conviction that more research is needed to understand all living organisms, the environment, and the inner workings of the human body and brain. Finally, the instrumentation will enhance the infrastructure that integrates research and teaching, foster collaborations within and across scientific disciplines (e.g., chemistry, biology, and neuroscience), and contribute to the broad dissemination of the intellectual benefits of ultrastructural research within the scientific and lay communities.