This proposal requests funds to purchase equipment that will benefit a diverse group of researchers at Texas A&M University. Sequencing equipment requested consists of: a Perkin Elmer 377-01 ABI Prism Automated DNA Sequencer & Plates; a Perkin Elmer Stretch Upgrade for the existing Model 373A Automated Sequencer & Plates; a Beckman 384-Pin Tool & Kit for an existing BioMek 2000 robot, and an HP Deskjet 855CXi Color Printer. For downstream analysis, the following equipment for imaging and data recording is requested: a Zeiss Axioplan 2 Microscope; a Meyer Instruments Color Chilled 3-Chip CCD Camera and Imaging System; CCD Camera software, firmware and connective computer hardware for PC & Mac and a Pentium P586/166 Computer to run the CCD camera. The listed equipment is requested to facilitate research in animal, plant and microbial science undertaken by several members of the Department of Biology. Additionally, the facilities of the Gene Technologies Laboratory (GTL) which is a service entity within the Institute of Developmental and Molecular Biology (IDMB), is available to all members of the Texas A&M University community. Since the use of the available DNA sequencing facilities has reached saturation level, studies of the named researchers, and others, will be inhibited unless additional equipment is acquired. There is a widespread need to characterize the functionality of many of the isolated genes. Our present imaging facilities provide only limited resources towards this need and acquisition of the requested equipment would represent an important step towards enabling the IDMB to provide services for downstream analysis that will complement those of the present sequencing service. The requested items represent more sophisticated equipment than can usually be acquired by an individual PI's laboratory, and will greatly enhance the quality of data gathering and reporting. A - 1
