This instrument will be used by a number of investigators with widely divergent research interests. The importance of this equipment is its broad applicability for current and future NIH grantees who are or will be using autoradiography or fluorography in their work. Most investigators could not afford to purchase this type of instrument due to its costs. Furthermore, granting agencies are not likely to approve the purchase of such an instrument for a single user. Therefore, this instrument would fit the shared instrument RFA purpose. Presently, this instrument will be used for two major areas of investigation: a) It will enable us to more accurately quantitate distribution of radioactivity either directly on gels or from supporting membranes, where protein has been transferred and subjected to immunochemical localization. b) To facilitate rapid analysis of DNA sequencing, restriction mapping, message quantitation, etc. This instrument greatly improves the accuracy and the speed of evaluation. The participating NIH grants span divergent areas of investigation. They range from basic science studies of reverse cholesterol transport and HDL metabolism to large population based epidemiological screening studies. Other areas include several projects involving molecular biology at the level of DNA and proteins.
