MRI: Acquisition of a Zeiss LSM980 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope with Airyscan 2 for Microscopy Core Facility

罗格斯大学纽瓦克分校获得一台配有Airyscan 2的蔡司LSM980激光扫描共聚焦显微镜。蔡司LSM 980将被整合到生物科学系（DBS）的高级成像核心设施（AICF）中，这是一个为罗格斯大学和纽瓦克高等教育机构服务的核心大学设施。显微镜的安装提供了急需的仪器，这将对罗格斯-纽瓦克大学作为一个肩负着改善和推进STEM教育、培训和推广使命的锚定机构产生毋庸置疑的积极影响。收购蔡司LSM 980将通过刺激核心生物学课程中为期六周的生物成像实验室系列的发展，开始改善生物学本科课程，每年招收600名学生。使用面对面和虚拟教学/学习策略，学生将能够在多维成像方面获得令人振奋的第一手体验。DBS将在显微镜高级实验课程中增加动手激光共聚焦成像。为了吸引更广泛的本科生和研究生观众，领导团队将与NSF-LSAMP、NIH-G-RISE和罗格斯大学-美国宇航局太空资助联盟项目合作，使用蔡司LSM 980引入多维成像。预计这种方法将鼓励更多的本科生参与研究，特别是URM学生，并鼓励追求STEM职业。罗格斯-纽瓦克大学的STEM教师长期以来一直与美国化学学会项目SEED和纽瓦克公立学校合作，为城市高中学生提供动手实验经验。显微镜检查通常是这种体验的关键部分。领导团队致力于通过为期四周的RUN-IMAGE夏季浸入式项目和Aim high NPS-NorthStar Academy学年项目，为当地高中生带来荧光成像的奇迹。每个程序都将受益于实际操作和虚拟成像依赖于蔡司LSM 980和其他显微镜在AICF。蔡司LSM 980加入AICF将在多个方面产生社会影响。向各级学生介绍先进的成像技术将提高他们的科学素养，并建立对科学发现和应用过程的理解。这将对未来产生积极影响，因为美国公民被要求根据对科学的理解做出重要的社会决策。此外，蔡司LSM 980将加强罗格斯-纽瓦克大学雇佣和留住顶尖教师的能力，这些教师的研究和教学技能将增加罗格斯-纽瓦克大学的教育、培训和推广。LSM 980将为生物科学领域的新教师提供必不可少的现代研究工具，这对于成功获得校外资助和发表同行评审的工作至关重要。配有Airyscan 2的蔡司LSM 980提供了最先进的显微镜工作站，可提供多维荧光成像以及超分辨率研究能力。该显微镜将支持神经细胞、肠上皮细胞和细菌细胞中细胞信号传导和膜蛋白分选机制的基础研究。蔡司LSM 980将使研究人员能够将新型荧光报告蛋白与创新的遗传动物和体外细胞/类器官模型结合使用，以跟踪小gtpase和转录因子在调节细胞和组织分化和维持中的动态和调节功能。超分辨率荧光成像和光处理将用于发现调节脂质转运的大分子复合物组装中的蛋白质-膜和蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用，细胞表面受体组装，细菌膜中信号复合物的细胞内分选，外周神经系统髓鞘形成过程和哺乳动物中枢胚胎发育过程中的蛋白质-膜和蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用。蔡司LSM980将用于最先进的光遗传学实验，研究细胞骨架-染色质相互作用在基因表达和表观遗传学中的重要作用。此外，显微镜将用于提供细胞信号传导和重塑途径的多维荧光成像，这些途径是对创伤引起的组织和细胞损伤的反应，包括冲击、拉伸、辐射和化学损伤。所有研究项目都与高中、本科生、研究生和博士后的STEM教育/培训充分结合，为提高STEM素养和未来领导力奠定基础。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An award is made to Rutgers University – Newark to acquire a Zeiss LSM980 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope with Airyscan 2. The Zeiss LSM 980 will be integrated into the Advanced Imaging Core Facility (AICF), of the Department of Biological Sciences (DBS), a core university facility that serves Rutgers and institutions of higher education in Newark. Installation of the microscope provides critically needed instrumentation that will have an unquestionable positive impact at Rutgers-Newark as an anchor institution with broad mission to improve and advance STEM education, training, and outreach. Acquisition of the Zeiss LSM 980 will initiate improvement in the undergraduate curriculum in Biology by stimulating development of a six-week long biological imaging laboratory series in a core biology course that enrolls 600 students annually. Using in-person and virtual teaching/learning strategies, students will be able to have an exhilarating first-hand experience at multi-dimensional imaging. DBS will add hands-on laser confocal imaging to a capstone upper division laboratory course in microscopy. To reach a broader undergraduate and graduate student audience, the leadership team will work with NSF-LSAMP, NIH-G-RISE, and Rutgers-NASA Space Grant Consortium programs at Rutgers-Newark to introduce multi-dimensional imaging using the Zeiss LSM 980. It is anticipated that this approach will encourage increased undergraduate participation in research, particularly URM students, and encourage pursuit of STEM careers. STEM faculty at Rutgers-Newark have a long-standing tradition of partnering with American Chemical Society Project SEED and Newark Public Schools to provide urban high school students with hands-on laboratory experience. Microscopy is often a key part of that experience. The leadership team is invested in bringing the wonder of fluorescence imaging to local high school students through the 4-week summer immersion program RUN-IMAGE and the academic year program Aim High NPS-NorthStar Academy. Each of these programs will benefit from both hands-on and virtual imaging relying upon the Zeiss LSM 980 and other microscopes in the AICF. The addition of the Zeiss LSM 980 to the AICF will have societal impacts on multiple fronts. Introducing advanced imaging to students at all levels will improve science literacy and build an understanding of the process of scientific discovery and application. This will have a future positive impact as US citizens are asked to make important societal decisions dependent upon an understanding of science. Further, the Zeiss LSM 980 will strengthen the ability of Rutgers-Newark to hire and retain top-shelf faculty whose research and teaching skills will add to education, training, and outreach at Rutgers-Newark. The LSM 980 will provide new faculty in the biological science with an essential modern-day research instrument that is vital for success in obtaining extramural grant funding and in publishing peer-reviewed work.The Zeiss LSM 980 with Airyscan 2 provides a state-of-the-art microscopy workstation that provides multi-dimensional fluorescence imaging as well as super-resolution research capacity. The microscope will support fundamental research examining the mechanisms of cell signaling and membrane-protein sorting in neural, intestinal epithelial, and bacterial cells. The Zeiss LSM 980 will enable researchers will use novel fluorescent-reporter proteins in conjunction with innovative genetic animal and in vitro cell/organoid models to follow the dynamics and regulatory function of small GTPases and transcription factors in regulating cell and tissue differentiation and maintenance. Super-resolution fluorescence imaging and photo-manipulation will be used to discover novel protein-membrane and protein-protein interactions in the assembly of macromolecular complexes that regulate lipid transport, assembly of cell surface receptors, and intracellular sorting of signaling complexes in bacterial membranes, during myelin formation in peripheral nervous system, and embryonic development in mammalian central. The Zeiss LSM980 will be used in state-of-the-art optogenetic experimentation on the important role of cytoskeleton-chromatin interactions on gene expression and epigenetics. Additionally, the microscope will be used to provide multi-dimensional fluorescence imaging of cell signaling and remodeling pathways activated in response to tissue and cell injury from trauma including, impact, stretch, radiation, and chemical insult. All the research projects are fully integrated with STEM education/training of high school, undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral students serving as the foundation for improved STEM literacy and future leadership.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.