Olympus FV1000 Scanning Confocal-TIRF Imaging Workstation

Ross, J.B.

Abstract

This proposal is to acquire an Olympus FV1000 Scanning Confocal-TIRF Imaging Workstation. Acquisition of this instrumentation will significantly enhance the research and educational capacity at The University of Montana including the Molecular Histology and Fluorescence Imaging (MHFI) and the Core Facility Biospectroscopy Core Research Facility (BCRF). These two cores collaborate to support the research activities of NIH-funded and other investigators who participate in three interacting centers at UM: the NCRR COBRE Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience (CSFN);the NCRR COBRE Center for Environmental Health Science (CEHS);and the recently established Center for Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics (CBSD). The two core facilities integrate their research, teaching and service activities with other UM core research facilities (computational, and mass spectrometry, among others) to provide synergistic, multidisciplinary approaches and promote collaborations from within and without the University to address fundamental questions in biophysics, biochemistry and molecular biology. Instrumentation capability at UM will have significant, broad impact on biomedical research in the Rocky Mountain Northwest and beyond.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed instrumentation will facilitate biomedical research in three research centers at The University of Montana with focuses in neurobiology, environmental health, and biomolecular structure and dynamics, respectively. NIH-funded investigators at The University of Montana will use this instrumentation to image and analyze the dynamics of functionally important interactions in model systems and cells. In this way, interactions and dynamics at the protein, membrane, and nucleic acid level can be related to events at the cellular and tissue levels, thus providing new insights about functional interactions central to our understanding of disease and the regulation of human biology.