This award provides support for purchase of a Transmission Electron Microscope equipped with cryotransfer holder, rotation holder, and CCD camera. The system will replace a 20 year old instrument located in the Electron Microscope Facility in the Department of Biology. The Facility presently houses both scanning and transmission electron microscopes as well as advanced light microscopes. An advisory committee, composed of the EM Facility Director, the Associate Director, and the Department Chair, supervises operation and maintenance of instruments. The enhanced capabilities of the new TEM will benefit diverse structural studies by 11 different laboratories, including studies of a unicellular photosynthetic organism that lives in hypersaline waters; localization and characterization of proteins in mitochondria; analysis of contractile protein function; study of evolutionary adaptations in fish; identification of microbes associated with corals; and analysis of DNA recombination. Use of the instrument should provide new insights into diverse basic cell biological and evolutionary questions, as well as playing an important role in the training of undergraduate students at a minority serving institution. In addition to these research and training roles, the microscopy facility also participates in an annual Sciences Open House that introduces hundreds of community members from the greater San Diego area to the research done by students and faculty at the institution.
