The acquisition of a flow cytometer/cell sorter will enable a multi-disciplinary group of researchers and students at Lamar University to perform analyses that involve quantitative single cell biological analysis and sorting. The instrument will facilitate research associated with Alzheimer's disease therapeutic screening and identification, high throughput drug screening, identification of unique cancer types and markers, and analysis of environmental toxins. The availability of this equipment will increase interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaborative research opportunities within Lamar University as well as with other organizations, and it will enrich the training of graduate and undergraduate students. Graduate and undergraduate students in microbiology, biochemistry, chemical engineering, and civil and environmental engineering classes will have access to this instrument, thereby strengthening curriculum content at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Flow cytometry/cell sorting is a technique for doing high level qualitative and quantitative analysis on a per cell basis for large cell populations in a high-throughput manner. The acquisition of a flow cytometer/cell sorter will generate the capability to perform high population count, quantitative single cell biological analysis and sorting. The availability of this instrument, therefore, will facilitate research related to drug discovery, biofuels, environmental impact, aging, and cancer characterization. Such work will lead to significantly improved research related to in vitro studies, including high throughput drug screening, the identification of unique cancer types and markers, and the determination of environmental toxins.
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.
