FSML: Improving the Detection, Enumeration and Visualization of Aquatic Microorganisms at the Romberg Tiburon Center, SFSU

旧金山州立大学(SFSU)获得了一笔赠款，以显著提高他们在龙伯格蒂伯隆环境研究中心(RTC)的研究和教育工作中可视化、表征和列举海洋微生物的能力，RTC是校外海洋研究和教学设施。这笔赠款将通过购买两台主要仪器来提高RTC的微生物研究分析能力：1)配备有差分干涉对比(Nomarski)棱镜和高清晰度数字成像和分析系统的最先进的倒置荧光显微镜(奥林巴斯IX81型)，以及2)用户友好且易于维护的流式细胞仪(BD Biosciences Accuri C-6)。所要求的显微镜将取代光学性能较差、缺乏图像捕获和解释能力的旧的、联合使用的和私人显微镜。流式细胞仪将能够及时对自然和养殖的浮游植物和细菌以及微生物组合进行量化和表征。由于其相对简单和紧凑的设计，该仪器将用于实验室和海上研究调查。新仪器的更广泛影响是通过跨越跨学科和机构边界的贡献来实现的。来自其他大学以及联邦和州机构的研究人员参与的RTC合作研究工作将受益于这些仪器在量化和描述目前正在研究的浮游系统方面提供的改进和增加的功能，包括旧金山湾、热带大西洋和太平洋西北部的多学科研究。来自显微镜平台的数字视频和图像将由RTC的外联协调员使用，与公众分享研究内容，并用于当地的教育工作。预计将使用这两种仪器的RTC调查人员正在积极从事研究生和本科生的教学工作，尽管显微镜和流式细胞仪将主要用于研究目的，但预计这两种仪器都将用于SFSU研究生和本科生的培训。欲了解更多有关该中心的信息，请访问其网站：http://rtc.sfsu.edu/.。

San Francisco State University (SFSU) has been awarded a grant to significantly increase their capabilities to visualize, characterize and enumerate marine microorganisms in their research and educational efforts at the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies (RTC), an off-campus marine research and teaching facility. The grant will increase RTC's analytical capabilities for microbial research by the purchase of two major instruments: 1) a state-of-the-art inverted, epifluorescence microscope (Olympus model IX81) equipped with differential interference contrast (Nomarski) prisms and a high-definition digital imaging and analysis system, and 2) a user-friendly and easy-to-maintain flow cytometer (BD Biosciences Accuri C-6). The requested microscope will replace older, joint-use and private microscopes that are of lesser optical performance, and lack the capability for image capture and interpretation. The flow cytometer will permit timely quantification and characterization of both natural and cultured phytoplankton and bacteria, and microbial assemblages. Due to its relative simplicity and compact design, the instrument will be employed in both laboratory and at-sea research investigations.The broader impacts of the new instrumentation are through contributions that bridge interdisciplinary and institutional boundaries. Collaborative RTC research efforts involving investigators from other universities, and both federal and state agencies will benefit from the improvements and increased functionality provided by these instruments in quantifying and characterizing planktonic systems currently under study, including multi-disciplinary studies in San Francisco Bay, the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Northwest. Digital video and imagery from the microscope platform will be available for use by RTC's Outreach Coordinator to share research content with the general public, and for use in local educational efforts. The RTC investigators expected to utilize the two instruments are actively engaged in graduate and undergraduate instruction, and although the microscope and flow cytometer will be used primarily for research purposes it is expected that that both instruments will be utilized in the training of SFSU graduate and undergraduate students. For further information about the center please visit its website at http://rtc.sfsu.edu/.