Researchers have used confocal microscopy for over two decades to obtain information about where proteins are located and how they function within organs, tissues and cells. Since proteins are responsible for performing almost all of the tasks that enable a cell to function normally, information obtained using confocal microscopy allows researchers to gain a better understanding of how cells work as individual units as well as how they work together to form functional organs and tissues. Faculty members from the Biology and Biomedical Engineering Departments at Bucknell University have proposed projects to utilize the latest confocal microscope technology to examine protein localization and function in a variety of cell types and organisms. Dr. Julie Gates plans to examine how cells undergo orchestrated changes in cell shape to build tissues and organs as the fruit fly embryo develops into a mature, functioning organism. Dr. Elizabeth Marin plans to investigate how the central nervous system of the fruit fly is assembled. Dr. Leocadia Paliulus plans to analyze how chromosomes are distributed into the two cells that result from division of a single cell as sperm are generated in the greater wax moth. Dr. Marie Pizzorno plans to evaluate how human cytomegalovirus, a member of the herpesvirus family, replicates once it has infected a cell. Dr. Matthew Heintzelman plans to investigate a form of single cell movement, referred to as gliding motility, in a raphid diatom and a protozoan parasite of the mealworm. Advances in confocal microscopy have also allowed for new applications of this technology to be developed. The projects proposed by Dr. Mark Haussmann and Dr. Donna Ebenstein are examples of such applications. Dr. Haussmann plans to use confocal microscopy to measure DNA damage caused by reactive oxygen species, also known as free radicals, in birds that have been reared in broods of varying sizes as a measure of oxidative stress. Dr. Ebenstein plans to use confocal microscopy to analyze the structural characteristics that make spider dragline silk such a tough, light-weight fiber in an effort to design and test man-made silk fibers that perform as well as the natural spider silk. The results of the proposed experiments will be presented at a variety of local, regional and national scientific conferences as well as published in various peer-reviewed scientific journals. Additionally, short summaries of published results will be available online through the Bucknell University Biology Department website (www.bucknell.edu/Biology.xml). In addition to enabling research and discovery, the new equipment will allow continued community outreach including demonstrations for local elementary, middle and high school students with the goal of exciting these students about science. Furthermore, the new system will enhance the exposure of a broad number of undergraduate students, including those from under-represented groups, to state-of-the-art microscopy through its use in several upper-division laboratory courses, and independent research projects. The new microscope will therefore enable the participation of undergraduate and Master's students in meaningful research using state-of-the-art microscopy techniques, thereby facilitating the training of the next generation of scientists.
