A grant has been awarded to Dr. Bruce Kohorn at Bowdoin College in order to purchase a confocal laser scanning microscope. The microscope will provide the ability to obtain high resolution fluorescent images from both live and fixed biological samples, and will become the only such instrument in Maine at a liberal arts undergraduate college. The microscope will be used to explore fundamental questions in neurobiology and behavior, plant development, nuclear protein transport, evolutionary genetics, and biomechanics. Seven faculty and their students from the Biology and Psychology departments of Bowdoin College, and two faculty from Bates and Colby College will use the instrument to achieve high resolution images for basic biological research.
The new instrument will be used by many faculty in their research on topics that include the function of the nervous system, the organization of cells, and the comparison of cellular structures so as to understand basic processes of evolution. The students in research labs will be exposed to current and standard technologies that they too will need to use once in more advanced degree programs. Students will be prepared for careers in Biology and related fields by providing the technical and theoretical background for one of the most common methods of imaging in cell and molecular biology.
