MRI: Acquisition of a white light laser confocal microscope for multidisciplinary research and teaching at a liberal arts undergraduate institution

通过授予贝茨学院的主要研究仪器(MRI)赠款，贝茨学院获得了一项资金，用于购买带有白光激光的扫描共焦显微镜，以扩大荧光和干涉反射显微镜的教学和研究机会。共聚焦显微镜将增强和拓宽可通过学院成像中心获得的显微镜应用。联合焦点将允许四个研究项目收集跨多个学科的各种重要科学问题的新数据，并由贝茨学院和鲍登学院的其他五名教员半定期使用。在课堂上，共焦显微镜将成为课程中即时和不可或缺的工具，并将用于物理和生物入门课程的演示，每年影响300多名学生的教育。该显微镜还将通过培训和支持教师和学生在研讨会和研究环境中的研究，加强贝茨学院与南缅因州社区学院的合作伙伴关系。共聚焦显微镜将使多个自然科学领域的各种新颖研究项目成为可能，包括发育生物学和毒理学、神经科学和细胞生物学、物理学和化学。特别是：将确定斑马鱼两种关键结构--耳囊和鱼囊--发育的分子机制；对参与节律运动行为的神经元的表征将使人们全面了解软体动物和其他动物的中央模式发生器功能的调制机制；将研究用于本地化纳米成像的荧光团的分子光物理，以确定对于活体细胞成像具有最佳开关性能的明亮荧光团；将研究单个等离子体金纳米棒和自组装纳米棒簇的光学散射光谱，以确定等离子体效应在多大程度上是实验测得的非线性光学行为的来源。所有拟议的项目都将吸引本科生进入实验室，向他们传授基于假设的研究，并培训他们在STEM领域进行批判性探究。这种显微镜将对贝茨学院和缅因州(EPSCoR州)的研究和教学基础设施产生变革。

An award though the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant to Bates College provides funding to acquire a scanning confocal microscope with white light laser to expand teaching and research opportunities in fluorescence and interference-reflection microscopy. The confocal microscope will enhance and broaden microscopy applications available through the College's Imaging Center. The confocal will permit four research projects to collect novel data on a variety of important scientific questions across multiple disciplines, and be used on a semi-regular basis by five other faculty from Bates College and Bowdoin College in their research. In the classroom, confocal microscopy will become an immediate and integral tool in courses and be used in demonstrations in introductory physics and biology courses, affecting the education of more than 300 students per year. The microscope will also enhance Bates College's partnership with Southern Maine Community College by training and supporting the research of their faculty and students in workshop and research settings. A variety of novel research projects across multiple natural science fields, including developmental biology and toxicology, neuroscience and cell biology, physics, and chemistry, will be enabled by the confocal microscope. In particular: the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of two key structures in the zebrafish, the otic vesicle and the swim bladder, will be determined; the characterization of neurons involved in rhythmic motor behaviors will provide a comprehensive understanding of modulatory mechanisms of central pattern generator function across mollusks and other animals; the molecular photophysics of fluorophores used in localization-based nanoscopy will be examined to identify bright fluorophores with on/off switching properties that are optimal for live-cell imaging; and the optical scattering spectra of individual plasmonic gold nanorods and self-assembled nanorod clusters will be studied to determine the extent to which plasmonic effects are the source of experimentally measured nonlinear optical behavior. All proposed projects will engage undergraduate students in the lab, teach them about hypothesis-based research, and train them in critical inquiry across STEM fields. This microscope will be transformative to the research and teaching infrastructure at Bates College and in the State of Maine (an EPSCoR state).