This request is for the purchase of an Amersham Biosciences Typhoon 9410. The Typhoon will serve as a core instrument for the Departments of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Pharmacology with a user group of 29 investigators, nearly all with NIH funding, with a wide variety of research interests. In addition, any other investigator within the NYU School of Medicine who requires the use of the special capabilities of the Typhoon will be allowed to join the user group. No similar instrument currently exists in the entire School of Medicine. The Typhoon 9410 combines a phosphorimager, a fluorescence image scanner, and a luminescence reader in one machine. No company other than Amersham markets an instrument with the same capabilities. Moreover, the Typhoon will replace an obsolete Molecular Dynamics 425 phosphorimager currently in use. Since most of the laboratories in the user group already own Molecular Dynamics cassettes, which can only be read by the Amersham instrument, the purchase of the Typhoon is appropriate and cost effective. The Typhoon will also supplant an aging and limited Molecular Dynamics Fluorimeter 575 that is currently housed in a separate building. The Typhoon fluorimeter is much more sensitive than its predecessor, offers better resolution, and can detect a wider variety of fluorescent substrates. The detection capabilities of the Typhoon will not only provide improved fluorimetric measurements but also will enable quantitative imaging of Western and nucleic acid hybridization blots labeled with fluorescent probes, replace X-ray film for detection of blots using enhanced chemiluminescence, and allow visualization and quantitation of proteins stained with fluorescent dyes on one- and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gels. Funds are also requested for a software license to set up workstations for data analysis in the individual departments separate from the facility housing the instrument. A small committee of the user group will administer the instrument and design rules for its use. A trained technician will maintain and monitor the machine on a daily basis and educate new users. It is anticipated that the availability of the Typhoon will have great impact on the research of the user group and the institution as a whole. ? ? ?
