This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This Major Research Instrumentation-Recovery and Reinvestment (MRI-R2) award funds the purchase of a confocal microscope to support a diverse array of research and teaching activities at New Mexico State University. The instrument will be housed in NMSU's centralized microscopy facilities and administered by the Electron Microscopy Laboratory to improve current and future research and training for the university and surrounding community. The new confocal microscope will support research in cellular and developmental biology, neurobiology, animal/microbial interactions, plant molecular biology, nanotechnology and chemical biology. The projects will take advantage of the microscope's ability to perform tandem scanning for live cell imaging, a spectral detector to separate overlapping spectra, which will be essential for applications requiring non-traditional excitation/emission spectra. The new system substantially broadens the research capacities of faculty members and of graduate and undergraduate students, enhancing careers in multiple scientific fields. The new instrumentation also offers significant opportunities for research training and education. The 18 participating investigators mentor over 100 graduate and undergraduate students, (60% female, 57% underrepresented minorities), and these numbers reflect a history of commitment to the recruitment and training of women and other underrepresented groups. The system will be used in support of educational and outreach activities including the continued offering of 2 courses, the introduction of confocal microscopy in other existing Biology courses and demonstrations for STEM programs aimed at recruiting and enhancing the research skills of women and underrepresented minority students and faculty at NMSU and throughout the state of New Mexico. The opportunity for students to use state-of the- art fluorescent imaging and analytical tools will profoundly impact their research projects, rendering them more competitive in gaining entry to top graduate programs or obtaining top postdoctoral positions. Data from the new system will be disseminated by publication in peer-reviewed journals, and by student and faculty presentations are regional or national meetings.
The instrumentation purchased through this MRI grant (confocal microscope, fluorescence stereomicroscope, cryostat) has enabled research in multiple disciplines and will have an impact on the base of knowledge and theory for each particular discipline. These disciplines range from Cell and Developmental Biology to Neurobiology, Microbiology, Agricultural Sciences, Environmental Ecology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Physics. Importantly, the instrumentation has also promoted multidisciplinary collaborations that stand to increase the pace and quality of scientific research, as well as the incorporation of new knowledge into new technologies. In addition to the impacts on scientific knowledge and understanding, the instrumentation has had a large impact on the development of human resources at New Mexico State University. In the past 3 years there have been eleven manuscripts published with data derived from the instrumentation, as well as 23 conference presentations at national or international meetings, and 5 theses. 24 undergraduate and 41 graduate students have used the instrumentation for their research, as well as 5 post-doctoral fellows and 33 faculty, significantly expanding access for scholars at all levels to state-of-the-art instrumentation and greatly enhancing the quality of their work. This will have a large impact on the future careers of these individuals. The impact of the instrumentation on the development of human resources goes well beyond the effects on researchers, to the Middle School and undergraduate and graduate students who have been given the opportunity in tours, workshops and formal courses to learn about the state-of-the-art instrumentation that is enabling great strides in research that will impact their lives in the future. The impact on human resources is therefore potentially very large, particularly in a region of the state of New Mexico where opportunities to learn state-of-the-art skills that could lead to higher-paying jobs have in the past been lacking.
