The long-term goal of the program is to develop high-speed instrumentation systems and optical labels to differentially analyze and sort individual, viable multicellular organisms such as nematodes, fruit fly embryos, fruit fly larvae, and zebrafish embryos on the basis of detailed internal morphology and protein expression. Gene function laboratories will use these systems to rapidly make and stabilize transgenic organisms for protein expression studies in disease models. High-speed, drug discovery programs will use them to detect drug interactions with specific pathways. Agricultural laboratories will use these systems to study the effects of chemical and biological agents on plants and model organisms.
The specific aims of the project are to improve the current sensitivity of Union Biometrica, Inc. products by developing high speed, wide dynamic range, digital electronics and software as well as multiple wavelength, high resolution optics that profile the axial distribution of optical features and sort organisms on the basis of profile. A goal is to detect features as small as 5 microns. Specific fluorescent reporter proteins will be permanently incorporated into the organisms as positional benchmarks along the profile. A test of the system will be performed using the mab-5 promoter that responds to Wnt signal in C. elegans.
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