A grant has been awarded to Drs. Quynh Chu-LaGraff, Barbara Boyer, Barbara Danowski, Stephen Horton, and Robert Lauzon at Union College to acquire a confocal microscope to be the centerpiece for a renovated Integrated Microscope facility. This instrument would substantially enhance and expand the research capabilities of five faculty with interests ranging from cellular motility, invertebrate development and evolution, genetic development, programmed cell death, to molecular neuroscience. Moreover, confocal technology as an innovative tool will be integrated into classroom laboratory training and individual student-faculty projects to enrich the research experience of undergraduates. Within the Biology Department, there are currently numerous projects that represent the integration of cellular, genetics, molecular, and developmental approach to biological science. Specifically, research include using fly and mouse model systems to better understand human neurological diseases, evolution of segmentation in primitive organisms, the role of centrosome reorientation in migrating cultured cells, genetic and molecular mechanisms governing mushroom development, and basic understanding of programmed cell death in colonial sea squirt Botryllus schlosseri. The instrument represents a critical investment to maintain and enhance academic research excellence both for faculty research and for the training of undergraduate researchers. It will also facilitate more active and productive faculty and student research interactions at Union College by bypassing the need to gain access to a confocal microscope elsewhere.
