This proposal is for the acquisition of equipment to support two facilities using image analysis; an image analysis core facility and a three-dimensional reconstruction facility. These facilities will be housed in separate spaces on the third and fourth floors in a new 80,000 square foot networked Biology Building. The image analysis core facility will be able to acquire macroscopic and microscopic images. Equipment for this facility include a camera stand, stereo microscope, CCD camera, framegrabber and Pentium computer with Image Pro Plus software, video monitor, and vibration isolation table for a new Olympus BH40 epifluorescent microscope. A portable x-ray machine (housed in a research lab) will be used to produce x-ray images of bone sizes and angles and egg size and number in living reptiles. Radiographs measurements will be taken and analyzed with the image analysis system. Data will be stored on Iomega 100 MB zip drives. A separate Pentium computer with Image Pro Plus and Zip drive will be housed in a computer lab to allow analysis of archived images. This facility will support research programs of several Biology faculty across several disciplines. Roger Anderson and Herb Brown will be using this facility for individual and collaborative projects to examine skeletal elements and ecological performance in reptiles from the wild. Giselle Muller Parker and Emily Peele will use image analysis to count and size autofluorescent algae and fluorescently-stained bacteria. June Ross will use the image analysis to measure morphological features of fossil bryozoans. The three-dimensional reconstruction facility will be used for the optical sectioning of fluorescently-stained embryos, the removal of out-of-focus fluorescence, the reconstruction of three-dimensional structures, and the analysis of three-dimensional data. Equipment include a vibration isolation table for a Leica DMRB rnicroscope, a high resolution 40X oil objective, CellScan System for three-dimensional reconstructions, Pentium computer, Tektronics printer, and a lGBJaz drive for data storage. This facility will support research programs of two Biology faculty. David Leaf will use the three-dimensional facility for immunofluorescent localization of a rab GTPbinding protein in sea urchin embryos. Mary Anne Pultz will use the facility for immunofluorescent stainings of Nasonia wild type and mutant embryos with cross-reactive antibodies against Drosophila developmental regulatory proteins. Both projects are supported by NIH-AREA grants. This facility will also support a collaborative project of Mary Anne Pultz and David Leaf to analyze gene expression of the Nasonia homologue of Caudal by in situ hybridization and immunofluorescent staining. Finally, the facility will be used to start a long-term project on producing a comparative three-dimensional atlas of gene expression in Drosophila and Nasonia.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
9601487
Program Officer
Lee C. Makowski
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
1996-09-01
Budget End
1998-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
1996
Total Cost
$122,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Western Washington University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Bellingham
State
WA
Country
United States
Zip Code
98225