Ultra-low freezer and lab washer for a molecular cell biology and developmental genetics laboratory

标准的实验室设备，特别是超低冰柜和实验室洗涤器，是我们实验室进行细胞死亡、细胞存活和生长实验所必需的。近年来，细胞程序性死亡的过程已经变得非常清楚。为了积极地对抗细胞死亡，涉及胰岛素受体(及其激活的分子)的生存机制帮助细胞存活和生长。在我们的实验室里，我们在普通果蝇身上研究了这样的过程，这是一个研究细胞生物学基本方面的理想模式生物。几年前，我们证明了在发育中的多细胞生物体中，胰岛素受体激活的蛋白质水平降低会导致细胞死亡。最近，我们发现另一个因素是解释低水平的胰岛素受体活性的关键，它可以减少果蝇的生长和改变新陈代谢。最重要的是，我们发现当营养缺乏时，这个因子可能提供一种短期的生存机制，因此可能在营养感知中发挥重要作用。由于细胞死亡在神经元退变中起作用，我们已经开始研究神经退行性变的细胞基础及其预防。目前，我们正在研究控制细胞生长和细胞死亡的这些机制的其他关键组件。随着人类和其他基因组计划的最新进展，模式生物的发现有望提供对人类生存和成长重要的信息。这一系列调查有望促进我们对加拿大人所患的许多疾病的了解，例如糖尿病、肥胖症以及包括帕金森氏症和亨廷顿病在内的神经退行性疾病。总之，我们对果蝇分子细胞生物学的持续研究将为探索控制生与死之间微妙平衡的基本机制提供一个很好的机会。

Standard laboratory equipment items, specifically an ultra-low freezer and a laboratory washer, are required for our laboratory's experiments into cell death, cell survival and growth. Over recent years, the process of programmed cell death has become very well understood. To actively counteract cell death, survival mechanisms involving the insulin receptor (and molecules activated by it) function to help cells live and grow. In our laboratory, we study such processes in the common fruit fly, an ideal model organism in which to study the fundamental aspects of cell biology. A few years ago, we demonstrated that reduced levels of a protein activated by the insulin receptor result in cell death in a developing multicellular organism. Recently we found that another factor is key in the interpretation of low levels of insulin receptor activity and acts to reduce growth and alter metabolism in fruit flies. Most importantly, we have found that this factor may provide a short-term survival mechanism when nutrients are unavailable, and thus may have an important role in the sensing of nutrition. As cell death plays a role in degeneration of neurons, we have started to investigate the cellular basis of neurodegeneration and its prevention. Currently, we are investigating other crucial components of these mechanisms that control cell growth and cell death. With the recent advances derived from the human and other genome projects, discoveries in model organisms promise to offer information important to the survival and growth of humans. This line of inquiry promises to advance our knowledge relating to many conditions suffered by Canadians, such as diabetes, obesity, and neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's Disease and Huntington's Disease. In summary, our continued research into the molecular cell biology of fruit flies will provide a great opportunity to explore the fundamental mechanisms that control the delicate balance between life and death.