An award is made to Boston College to support the acquisition of a Super-Resolution Structured Illumination Microscope that will be shared by researchers in the Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology departments. Each of the co-PIs on this grant trains multiple undergraduates every year, and these undergraduates will benefit dramatically from experience using a super-resolution microscope. Furthermore, this microscope will be used as a general training and recruitment platform to draw more undergraduates from diverse backgrounds into life-science. Specifically, the microscope will be directly incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum via the Advanced Cellular Imaging Course which enrolls 24 students annually. Additionally, the microscope will be incorporated into many outreach efforts run by faculty in the department including Research Day for Under-represented Students and the Women in Science and Technology Program. Finally, a collaboration has been initiated with Wellesley College, a highly competitive college for women, which will have access to this microscope for research projects, and will include in the class Modern Biological Imaging, which trains 12 women every year. Thus, enrichment of undergraduate training in general, and for women and under-represented groups specifically, is a primary function of this instrument.
Super-resolution microscopy is crucial to cell biological research today. This fact is highlighted by entire sessions at international meetings such as the American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting being devoted to the technique, and by the volume of manuscripts that would not be possible without the spatial resolution made possible by super-resolution microscopy. Boston College has a critical mass of cell biologists, and a well-equipped, University-funded, imaging facility. The addition of Super-Resolution Microscopy capabilities will expand the questions that can be asked, and the depth to which questions can be addressed. Furthermore, it will be a tool for the recruitment of new faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. In conclusion, super-resolution capabilities are necessary, not only to drive cell based research today, but to properly train future scientists. The SR-SIM system at Boston College will be maximized for both goals and will additionally be used as a tool to develop collaborations between faculty and students at a number of area institutions.
