A Stereomicroscope Imaging System for Faculty-Student Research in the Microscopy Core Facility at Wake Forest University

该奖项支持购买一台研究级的荧光立体显微镜，以及一台数码相机、图像分析系统和隔振台。该设备将允许用户以立体显微镜允许的放大倍数查看和捕获大型完整结构的图像，并将荧光成像与低放大倍数成像相结合。这些设备将存放在显微镜核心设施中并进行维护，生物系的所有成员和其他部门的成员都可以在那里接触到这些设备。这些设备将用于不同的研究项目，涉及四个主要的重点领域：生态学、进化论和系统学；比较生理学和行为学；细胞和分子生物学；以及综合植物生物学。在这些广泛的群体中，教师们通过检查完整的、通常是活的有机体的结构和功能，在完整的有机体的水平上进行研究。除其他外，该研究的用途包括研究体内对变化的生理条件的反应，对动物行为的延时成像，以及在整个有机体水平上确定基因表达和蛋白质定位。除了在研究中的作用外，立体成像系统成像还将用于扩大用于培养大量本科生和研究生的显微镜类型，包括在正式课程和个人项目中的使用。

This award supports purchase of a research-grade, epifluorescence stereomicroscope together with a digital camera, image analysis system and a vibration-isolation table. The equipment will allow users to view and capture images of large, intact structures with the magnification permitted by a stereomicroscope, and to combine fluorescence with low magnification imaging. The equipment will be housed and maintained in the Microscopy Core Facility, where it will be accessible to all members of the Biology department and to members of other departments. The equipment will be used in diverse research programs that span four major focus groupings: Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics; Comparative Physiology and Behavior; Cellular and Molecular Biology; and Integrative Plant Biology. Within these broad groupings, faculty pursue research at the level of the intact organism by examining the structure and function of intact, often living organisms. The research uses include, among others, the study of in vivo responses to changing physiological conditions, the time-lapse imaging of animal behavior, and determination of gene expression and protein localization at the level of the whole organism. In addition to its role in research, the stereoscopic imaging system imaging will be used to expand the types of microscopy used in the training of significant numbers of undergraduate and graduate students, including use in formal coursework and individual projects.