An award is made to Knox College to acquire a Bio-Rad V3 WW ChemiDoc MP imager package. The imager will contribute to research activities and undergraduate education in Biochemistry, Biology, and Neuroscience, permitting accelerated gel electrophoresis and transfer and fluorescence detection for Western blotting, as well as supporting multiple methods for visualization of protein and nucleic acid gels. The ChemiDoc MP will contribute significantly to undergraduate research and curricular applications, thus enhancing student research training at Knox. Incorporation of the instrument into coursework and laboratory activities in Biochemistry, Biology, and Neuroscience will benefit approximately 140 students per year. The instrument will allow for adoption of more environmentally-friendly techniques and will improve data acquisition and analysis.
Because of the broad application of the techniques supported by this instrument, the ChemiDoc MP imager will contribute to research in a number of laboratories. Research into the mechanisms by which ethanol decreases the immune defense will use the imager to study changes in signal transduction events occurring early in the inflammatory response to better understand how acute ethanol exposure impairs defense against illness-producing pathogens. The instrument will also be used for research addressing the role of intersectin in cellular transport of macromolecules during the development of the nervous system, with implications for better understanding crucial events in early development. Another research program uses molecular biology techniques facilitated by the imager to create a more robust protein-based hydrogel biopolymer, which has important uses in tissue engineering and drug delivery design. One laboratory will visualize nucleic acid gels as part of its exploration of the diversity of small RNAs expressed in dictyostelid social amoebas as a way of achieving better understanding of the evolutionary history of these important regulators of gene expression. The imager will also be used in research that addresses gender differences in the development of drug addiction by studying the role of the female hormone estrogen in the development of drug dependence. These programs combined will involve five investigators and approximately 20 undergraduate students annually in independent research initiatives.
