A major challenge in cell biological research today is to understand how numbers of component biological molecules interact within complex systems to carry out fundamental cellular functions. Frequently these systems correspond to large, nonsymmetrical structural assemblies, extending from thousands to tens of thousands of angstroms within the cell, whose function is intimately related to their underlying structural architecture, Newly developed techniques of electron microscopy tomography and light microscopy optical sectioning are capable of providing detailed 3-dimensional reconstructions of such assemblies at overlapping resolution. This grant is for the acquisition of a light microscopy optical sectioning workstation to complete an image analysis facility capable of carrying out 3-dimensional reconstructions at both the light and electron microscopy resolution level. The light microscopy station described will allow 3-dimensional structure determination within living cells and tissues. These capabilities represent a vital resource to the research programs of the facility's users. This research is focused on large-scale chromosome structure and nuclear organization, the role of cytoskeleton and function in modulating key events in Drosophila embryonic development (major users), the specific structural coupling between the extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton and its regulatory role in cell growth, differentiation, and migration, and mapping of neural networks (minor users).
