MRI: Acquisition of a Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope for the Core, Multi-User Microscopy Facility at Appalachian State University

An award is made to Appalachian State University (ASU) through the NSF-Major Research Instrumentation program to acquire a new laser scanning confocal microscope (LSM). A LSM is an essential tool for studying cell and gene function in animals, plants, and microorganisms. The LSM also improves the quality and expands the scope of the research, training and educational activities in many scientific disciplines, including biology and chemistry. The new LSM will be housed in the Dewel Microscopy Facility (DMF) (http://casmifa.appstate.edu/) within the College of Arts and Sciences. The DMF serves as the core, multi-user microscopy facility for all departments at ASU as well as surrounding Appalachian communities, including high school students in western North Carolina. Principle investigators that use the facility train undergraduate and master?s level graduate students to utilize this imaging technique in coursework as well as research environments. On a broader level, ASU and the DMF support several programs that train college and high school students from underrepresented groups pursuing degrees. These programs include Upward Bound that provides academic support to high school students in the Appalachian region, the Forensic Program in the Department of Chemistry, and the Duke TIP for gifted middle and high school students. This instrument will also be used for other outreach programs at ASU, such as the STEM education program and annual NC Science Festival. This project will significantly enhance research productivity and educational opportunities at ASU. It will also strengthen ongoing services to communities and collaborations with other universities in the region. Thus, the new LSM will become an essential tool for current and future scientists as well as engineers in all of western North Carolina.

The new instrumentation primarily serves users from the Departments of Biology and Chemistry at ASU for individual research, research training programs, and teaching. The five major research projects that use the LSM are multidisciplinary including investigation of the roles of microtubules in root development; study of the evolution of gene regulatory mechanisms using zebrafish as a model system; research on the morphology and function of sensory neurons in Drosophila melanogaster; exploration of the biophysical processes behind the transport of negatively charged molecules through major facilitator superfamily proteins overexpressed in mammalian cell lines; and examination of the evolutionary transitions in the mechanisms of ammonia excretion in vertebrates. The project award enhances these research areas as the LSM is configured with a pulsed 405nm laser for examining nuclear dyes, for photobleaching experiments and for laser ablation studies. Furthermore, additional lasers include a 25mW Argon with lines 458/488/514nm for many yellow or green dyes, a Diode Pumped Solid State Laser at 561nm for red dyes, and a HeNe 633nm for near infrared dyes. Research projects benefit from increased resolution, enhanced scanning speeds and the ability to conduct fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments. The new LSM meets both the current and future needs for research and education across multiple disciplines at ASU and western North Carolina.