A grant has been awarded to Dr. Sophia Passy (PI), Drs Grover, Marshall, Wilk, and Nelson (Co-PIs), and Drs Arnott, Burleson, and Smith (Senior Personnel) from the University of Texas at Arlington to purchase a confocal scanning laser microscope. The instrument will be used for a broad range of applications, including subcellular localization of molecules; monitoring ion channel clustering patterns; cytoskeleton visualization; emission fingerprinting, 3D reconstruction, and detection of gradients in biofilms. The unifying theme underlying these diverse research endeavors is the search for a relationship between structure and function in the organic world, which remains one of the most fundamental questions in biology. The equipment will be employed for the study of: 1) biofilm spatio-temporal dynamics as a product of small-scale proximate ecological processes of species dispersal, growth, and competition, and ultimate broad-scale environmental constraints of shear stress and nutrient limitation; 2) spectral fingerprinting of live algal communities developing in the freshwater plankton and benthos for the purpose of developing a new biomonitoring approach; 3) chemical and neural mechanisms that control cardiovascular and ventilatory reflex responses to environmental stimuli in fish; 4) three-dimensional reconstructions of sperm shape and structure through optical sectioning of the sperm cytoskeleton to assess the influence of variation in sperm shape on sperm motility and competition; 5) spinal cord and peripheral nerve regeneration by fabricating tissue engineered scaffolds that deliver drugs, proteins, growth factors, and DNA to support and regulate neuronal regeneration; 6) molecular mechanisms used by bacteria to establish and maintain Mg2+ homeostasis, and the consequences of disrupting these mechanisms, and 7) intracellular pathways involved in the regulation of ion channels and how alterations in the functional state of channels affect cellular functions under conditions of chronic pain and inflammation. This microscope will also provide the basis for the development of a new graduate course in Molecular Cytology and enhance existing courses such as Limnology and Phycology. The Biology Department at the University of Texas at Arlington has well established a specialized microscopy facility, the Center for Electron Microscopy, where generations of researchers and students have received training and explored the wonders of the organic and nonliving micro-cosmos. The addition of a confocal microscope to this facility will open new avenues for novel and interdisciplinary research, which should come as no surprise given that confocal microscope technology only became commercially available in the early 1980s, with its use largely limited to medical studies. Hence, there are still a number of unexplored fields in biology, ranging from physiology and signal transduction to aquatic ecology and evolution, which will vastly benefit from the new approaches that confocal microscopy offers.
