Acquisition of a Chemistry/Biology Biomolecular Imaging Center

在丽贝卡·亚历山大博士和伯纳德·布朗二世博士的指导下，维克森林大学获得了一笔赠款。这笔拨款将帮助在维克森林大学雷诺校区建立一个跨部门、多用户的生物分子成像设施。随着化学和生物学交叉领域的研究项目越来越多，维克森林大学一直在建设自己的仪器基础设施。特别是，研究人员需要成像设备来快速和提高灵敏度地分析数据。这笔赠款将用于购买化学发光/荧光成像仪和相关外围设备，以补充最近获得的磷成像仪。成像仪将用于溴化乙锭染色DNA凝胶的图像捕获；染色或镀银的蛋白质凝胶；化学发光印迹应用；琼脂平板菌落计数；以及其他应用。最初的7个主要用户包括化学系的4个教员和生物系的3个教员。每位研究者除了教授本科生和研究生课程外，还监督本科生和研究生的研究项目。其中四名是在前四年任职的初级教师，该成像设施有望提高他们的研究效率，提高提交给资助机构和发表的数据的质量。除了提案中包含的主要用户外，生物、化学和物理系的其他用户可能会在成像设备全面投入使用后利用它。据估计，在资助期间，将有多达80名本科生和研究生使用该设施。这项提案的资金将对维克森林大学的教学和推广产生重大影响。特别是，WFU正在寻求批准本科生物化学专业，包括必要的生物化学实验室和独立的研究项目。获得当代成像设备对这一培训至关重要。女性和少数族裔在WFU化学系和生物系的本科和研究生课程中都有很好的代表，她们对这里描述的仪器的熟悉将提高她们的培训和未来的职业机会。此外，位于温斯顿-塞勒姆的女子学院塞勒姆学院（Salem College）的科学教师表示有兴趣向学生展示各种成像技术，通过该奖项购买的设备将用于这种推广能力。维克森林大学的研究人员还将在与温斯顿-塞勒姆州立大学（一所历史悠久的黑人大学）的教职员工和学生进行的合作项目中使用该仪器。最后，该设备将用于向当地公立学区的初中和高中教师进行示范，作为更广泛的教师外展工作的一部分。

A grant has been awarded to Wake Forest University under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Alexander and Dr. Bernard Brown II. This grant will help to establish an interdepartmental, multi-user, biomolecular imaging facility on the Reynolda campus of Wake Forest University. With an increasing number of research programs at the interface of chemistry and biology, Wake Forest has been building its instrumental infrastructure. In particular, researchers needed imaging equipment to analyze data rapidly and with increased sensitivity. This grant will support the purchase of a chemiluminescent/fluorescent imager and associated peripherals to supplement a recently acquired phosphorimager. The imager will be used for image capture of ethidium bromide-stained DNA gels; dye or silver-stained protein gels; chemiluminescent blotting applications; colony counting of agar plates; and other applications. The initial group of seven major users includes four faculty in the Chemistry Department and three in the Biology Department. Each investigator supervises undergraduate and graduate research projects in addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses. Four are junior faculty within the first four years of appointment, and this imaging facility is expected to increase their research productivity and improve the quality of data submitted to funding agencies and for publication. In addition to the major users included in the proposal, others in the Biology, Chemistry, and Physics Departments are likely to take advantage of the imaging facility once it is fully operational. It is estimated that as many as 80 undergraduates and graduate students will access the facility during the funding period. Funding of this proposal will have significant impact on teaching and outreach at Wake Forest University. In particular, WFU is pursuing approval for an undergraduate biochemistry major, including a required biochemistry laboratory and independent research projects. Access to contemporary imaging equipment will be vital to this training. Women and minorities are well-represented in both the undergraduate and graduate programs in the WFU Chemistry and Biology Departments, and their familiarity with the instrumentation described here will enhance their training and future career opportunities. In addition, science faculty from Salem College, a women's college in Winston-Salem, have expressed interest in demonstrating various imaging techniques to students, and equipment purchased through this award will be used in this outreach capacity. Wake Forest researchers will also use the instrumentation in an ongoing collaborative project with faculty and students at Winston-Salem State University, a historically Black university. Finally, this equipment will be available for demonstration to middle and high school teachers in the local public school district as a part of wider faculty outreach efforts.