MRI: Acquisition of a laser scanning confocal microscope with enhanced resolution, sensitivity, and speed to serve as a regional resource for research and education

詹姆斯·麦迪逊大学（JMU）获得了一项奖励，以资助购置一种具有更高分辨率、灵敏度和速度的先进光学显微镜系统，作为研究和教育的区域资源。该仪器将扩大JMU多个部门、邻近机构和周边社区的研究和教育范围，使教师和学生能够以超越传统光学显微镜的时空分辨率研究微观生物和物理过程。JMU及其邻近的学院主要是本科院校，致力于通过教师指导的研究让学生参与学习。事实上，学生负责大约90%的核心显微镜设施的总研究使用。在这样做的过程中，他们不仅进行了原创性的研究，而且成为了称职的显微镜家。资助的显微镜系统将成为核心设施的关键组成部分，并将通过让学生接触先进的成像技术来加强他们的研究训练。该仪器还将通过为学生提供尖端光学显微镜技术的实践和理论教育，为JMU的正式高年级课程，如发育神经生物学和生物物理化学提供帮助。此外，为了扩大对本科生科研培训的影响，研究人员将开发一个科学图像数据管理培训模块，重点关注促进科学研究严谨性和可重复性的最佳实践。将分发模块材料和成果，以便为其他科学分学科和其他机构的科学数据管理培训提供信息。最后，显微镜系统将通过扩展到邻近的高中和大学，支持周围北部谢南多厄山谷地区的一般科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育。将通过JMU的STEM外展中心开发一个新的外展模块，将实践课堂活动和新型显微镜的远程演示结合起来，向学生传授微观尺度的概念。资助的显微镜系统将为JMU和该地区的研究人员开辟新的研究途径，使生物和物理过程能够跨越广泛的时空尺度进行研究。虽然在一个尺度范围内研究过程是有用的，但研究现象如何在时空尺度上整合也很重要，例如，从细胞到组织，从分子到亚细胞组织，从快速/短暂事件到缓慢/长期行为。资助的显微镜将使研究如何结合小尺度事件和模式来确定更大尺度的性质，特别是使非常小的特征和快速过程的可视化超越传统光学显微镜的灵敏度。它将推动至少16名教师在多个STEM领域的研究项目，包括生物学、物理学、生物化学和科学教育。受到特别影响的项目包括：发育过程中神经元连接的形成和完善；细胞迁移;在流动过程中根据物理约束在液相和固相之间转换的物质；眼睛中的神经元如何调节非图像形成行为；细菌生物膜结构与发育；和软骨组织在发育过程中的图案。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 James Madison University (JMU) to fund the acquisition of an advanced light microscope system with enhanced resolution, sensitivity, and speed to serve as a regional resource for research and education. The instrumentation will expand the scope of research and education in multiple departments at JMU, in neighboring institutions, and in the surrounding community by enabling faculty and students to study microscopic biological and physical processes at spatiotemporal resolutions exceeding those offered by conventional light microscopes. JMU and its neighboring colleges are primarily undergraduate institutions and are committed to engaging students in learning through faculty-mentored research. Indeed, students are responsible for approximately 90% of the total research use of the core microscopy facility. In doing so, they not only conduct original research, but also become competent microscopists. The funded microscope system will become a key component of the core facility and will enhance student research training by exposing them to advanced imaging technologies. This instrumentation will also benefit formal upper-division courses at JMU such as Developmental Neurobiology and Biophysical Chemistry by providing students with practical and theoretical education in cutting-edge light microscopy techniques. Moreover, in an effort to expand the impact on undergraduate research training, the investigators will develop a scientific image data management training module, focusing on best-practices that promote rigor and reproducibility in scientific research. The module materials and outcomes will be disseminated to inform scientific data management training in other sub-disciplines of science and at other institutions. Finally, the microscope system will support general science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the surrounding northern Shenandoah Valley region through outreach to neighboring high schools and colleges. A new outreach module incorporating hands-on classroom activities and a remote demonstration of the new microscope will be developed to teach students the concept of size at the micro-scale and will be offered through JMU’s STEM outreach center.The funded microscope system will open new investigative avenues for researchers at JMU and in the region by enabling the study of biological and physical processes across broad spatiotemporal scales. While it is useful to study processes within one size regime, it is also essential to study how phenomena are integrated across spatiotemporal scales, e.g., from cells to tissues, molecules to sub-cellular organization, rapid/brief events to slow/long-lived behaviors. The funded microscope will enable the study of how small-scale events and patterns combine to determine larger-scale properties and will, in particular, enable the visualization of very small features and fast processes that are beyond the sensitivity of conventional light microscopes. It will advance the research programs of at least 16 faculty across multiple STEM fields including biology, physics, biochemistry, and science education. Projects that will be particularly impacted include studies of: formation and refining of neuronal connections during development; cell migration; materials that convert between liquid and solid phases depending on physical confinement during flow; how neurons in the eye regulate non-image-forming behaviors; bacterial biofilm structure and development; and cartilage tissue patterning during development.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.