This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This major research instrumentation (MRI) award funds the purchase of a confocal system to support the research programs of 11 Biological Sciences faculty at Marquette University and their students. The confocal system integrated with an inverted microscope will be used to support basic research, and undergraduate and graduate training programs. The system will allow high resolution of various biological tissues and high speed recording of processes within cells such as calcium flux in muscle and nerve cells. Important scientific questions in both animal and plant systems will be studied including mechanisms of excitation in smooth and skeletal muscle, neuroscience research into the role of inhibitory synapses and motor control, molecular localization and mechanism of cilia beating, developmental regulation, and the revealing of complicated cellular structures, such as muscle and yeast mitochondria, and the epithelium of kidney tubules. This research is expected to lead to important advances in the understanding of structure-function relationships.
Besides its use in basic research, the confocal system will be used to bring advanced imaging techniques to undergraduate and graduate students. Cell biology and two physiology lab courses will be enhanced by the incorporation of confocal microscopy. The independent research of our advanced undergraduates will be expanded to include imaging technology. Confocal microscopy will also become a part of our summer laboratory program for Equal Opportunity Program students (10th-12th high school students and entering college freshman) and McNair scholars (minorities and/or low income/first generation college students), and an NSF sponsored summer research program which historically has emphasized the recruitment of underrepresented minorities and students from institutions where research opportunities in the biological sciences are limited. Outcomes will be published in multiple journals over the lifetime of the instrument.
