MRI: Acquisition of a fluorescence microscope to serve as a regional resource for dynamic, live-specimen imaging research and education

詹姆斯·麦迪逊大学(JMU)被授予一笔资金，用于购买自动荧光显微镜系统，用于动态、活标本成像，以促进JMU和弗吉尼亚州周边地区的研究和教育。这一仪器将通过使教职员工和学生能够研究分子、细胞和组织的动力学，扩大JMU和邻近机构多个系的研究范围。JMU及其邻近的大多数大学主要是本科生院校，致力于通过教师指导的研究让学生参与学习。事实上，在我们的核心显微镜设备的全部研究使用中，学生占了95%以上。新的显微镜系统将使这些学生接触到我们地区其他地方无法获得的实时成像和多重荧光技术，并将扩大该设施的能力，为本科生增加研究机会。该仪器还将通过为学生提供光学显微镜技术的实践培训，加强正式的高级课程，如人类组织学和环境微生物学。此外，为了扩大我们对本科生研究培训的影响，我们将与布里奇沃特学院的生物系(一所邻近的小型文理学院)合作，为他们的高级课程提供机会。最后，该显微镜系统将通过加强JMU生物系当地小学推广计划，支持谢南多阿山谷北部地区的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教育。该计划为K-5班提供已知的那种科学丰富体验，以激发所有学生对科学的早期兴趣(但通常只对特定人群开放)，无论学生的学业准备情况、语言和文化障碍以及社会经济地位如何。这一最先进的仪器将被整合到五年级学习模块中，专注于细胞的组成和动态性质。新的荧光显微镜系统将为JMU和该地区的研究人员开辟新的研究途径，通过能够研究生物组织的多个层面的动态过程-从分子组装到整个生物体-并通过利用更广泛的荧光探针进行多荧光标记成像。它将推进来自三个机构和多个STEM领域的至少16名教职员工的研究和培训计划，包括生物学、人体工学、再生医学、数学、工程和科学教育。将受到重大影响的项目包括：角膜组织创伤愈合和再生；利用分子和数学工具研究线虫对蛋白质错误折叠(许多神经退行性疾病的组成部分)的细胞和有机体水平的反应；甲壳类动物发育过程中的基因组重组；哺乳动物应激与取食行为之间的关系；以及内分泌信号在控制蛇的性信号产生中的作用。新仪器还将影响JMU运动学和工程学系以及邻近机构的研究，如布里奇沃特学院、东门诺特大学和马里恩·杜邦马匹医疗中心。

An award is made to James Madison University (JMU) to fund the acquisition of an automated, fluorescence microscope system for dynamic, live-specimen imaging to advance research and education at JMU and in the surrounding region in Virginia. This instrumentation will expand the scope of research in multiple departments at JMU and in neighboring institutions by enabling faculty and students to study the dynamics of molecules, cells, and tissues. JMU and most of its neighboring colleges are primarily undergraduate institutions and are committed to engaging students in learning through faculty-mentored research. Indeed, students are responsible for over 95% of the total research use of our core microscopy facility. The new microscope system will provide these students with exposure to live imaging and multi-fluorescence technologies unavailable elsewhere in our region, and will expand the facility's ability to increase research opportunities for undergraduates. This instrumentation will also enhance formal upper-division courses such as Human Histology and Environmental Microbiology by providing students with practical training in light microscopy techniques. Moreover, in an effort to expand our impact on undergraduate research training, we will work with Bridgewater College's Biology Department (a neighboring, small liberal arts college) to provide access for their upper-division courses. Finally, this microscope system will support science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the northern Shenandoah Valley region by enhancing the JMU Biology Department's local elementary school outreach program. This program provides K-5 classes with the kinds of science enrichment experiences known to pique early interest in science (but often only accessible to select populations) to all students regardless of academic readiness, language and cultural barriers, and socioeconomic status. This state-of-the-art instrument will be integrated into 5th grade learning modules focusing on the components and dynamic nature of cells.The new fluorescence microscope system will open new investigative avenues for researchers at JMU and in the region by enabling the study of dynamic processes at multiple levels of biological organization-from molecular assemblies to entire organisms-and by accommodating multi-fluorescent-label imaging with a broader diversity of fluorescent probes. It will advance the research and training programs of at least 16 faculty members from three institutions and multiple STEM fields including biology, kinesiology, regenerative medicine, mathematics, engineering and science education. Projects that will be substantially impacted include: cornea tissue wound healing and regeneration; using molecular and mathematical tools to investigate cell- and organism-level responses to protein mis-folding (a component of many neurodegenerative diseases) in nematodes; genome reorganization during crustacean development; the relationship between stress and feeding behavior in mammals; and the role of endocrine signaling in the control of sexual signal production in snakes. The new instrumentation will also impact research in JMU's Kinesiology and Engineering departments, among others, as well as at neighboring institutions such as Bridgewater College, Eastern Mennonite University and the Marion DuPont Equine Medical Center.