A grant has been awarded to CUNY Queens College under the direction of Dr. Corinne Michels for the purchase of a confocal microscope and a biolistic unit for the Core Facility for Imaging, Cell and Molecular Biology. The confocal microscope is a powerful system that permits the imaging of individual cells and their components thereby allowing for a comprehensive understanding of cellular anatomy and subcellular organization. Furthermore, this technique can be adapted to image the activity of living cells that will allow us to monitor their functioning in real time. The confocal microscope provides high resolution images of molecules, cells, and organisms. The biolistic unit will allow us to target individual cells for detailed anatomical and physiological studies. Combining biolistic techniques with confocal imaging will allow us to define the anatomical and physiological specializations of both plant and animal cells which will further our understanding of the interplay between form and function.
The new equipment will be available to City University of New York (CUNY) researchers and will greatly enhance scientific research at Queens College. The proposed research projects that will benefit from this instrumentation include: the unraveling of neuronal morphology as a means to reveal precise anatomical and functional connections between neuronal cells and between areas of the nervous system; the study of the localization and trafficking of proteins within cells under various conditions or carrying mutations; and the examination of the effect on the function of plant and animal cells of genes transferred into cells with the biolistic unit or manipulated using genetic methods. Students at both the graduate and undergraduate level will experience and be trained to use the new experimental tools either through courses or by carrying out independent research projects. The confocal microscope will become a focus for campus researchers and will promote interdisciplinary interactions that will enhance the research environment for the entire campus community.
The Core's instruments are available to principle investigators, graduate and undergraduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and laboratory technical staff and can be used for independent research projects and integrated into course curricula. As part of an undergraduate science education grant awarded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, undergraduate and high school researchers are supported over the summer months and Research-Teaching Postdoctoral fellows in the fields of Neuroscience and Bioinformatics will be employed on annual basis. The Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program funded by the National Institutes of Health aims at increasing minority participation in life science or biomedical research and admission of minority students into Ph.D. programs in the biomedical sciences. This strong grounding in research methods will be enhanced by the addition of the confocal microscope to the College's Core Facility for Imaging, Cell and Molecular Biology and help prepare the next generation of research scientists/educators for their future careers.
