MRI: Acquisition of a Zeiss LSM980 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope with Airyscan 2 for Microscopy Core Facility

An award is made to Rutgers University – Newark to acquire a Zeiss LSM980 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope with Airyscan 2. The Zeiss LSM 980 will be integrated into the Advanced Imaging Core Facility (AICF), of the Department of Biological Sciences (DBS), a core university facility that serves Rutgers and institutions of higher education in Newark.

Installation of the microscope provides critically needed instrumentation that will have an unquestionable positive impact at Rutgers-Newark as an anchor institution with broad mission to improve and advance STEM education, training, and outreach. Acquisition of the Zeiss LSM 980 will initiate improvement in the undergraduate curriculum in Biology by stimulating development of a six-week long biological imaging laboratory series in a core biology course that enrolls 600 students annually.

Using in-person and virtual teaching/learning strategies, students will be able to have an exhilarating first-hand experience at multi-dimensional imaging. DBS will add hands-on laser confocal imaging to a capstone upper division laboratory course in microscopy. To reach a broader undergraduate and graduate student audience, the leadership team will work with NSF-LSAMP, NIH-G-RISE, and Rutgers-NASA Space Grant Consortium programs at Rutgers-Newark to introduce multi-dimensional imaging using the Zeiss LSM 980.

It is anticipated that this approach will encourage increased undergraduate participation in research, particularly URM students, and encourage pursuit of STEM careers. STEM faculty at Rutgers-Newark have a long-standing tradition of partnering with American Chemical Society Project SEED and Newark Public Schools to provide urban high school students with hands-on laboratory experience.

Microscopy is often a key part of that experience. The leadership team is invested in bringing the wonder of fluorescence imaging to local high school students through the 4-week summer immersion program RUN-IMAGE and the academic year program Aim High NPS-NorthStar Academy. Each of these programs will benefit from both hands-on and virtual imaging relying upon the Zeiss LSM 980 and other microscopes in the AICF.

The addition of the Zeiss LSM 980 to the AICF will have societal impacts on multiple fronts. Introducing advanced imaging to students at all levels will improve science literacy and build an understanding of the process of scientific discovery and application. This will have a future positive impact as US citizens are asked to make important societal decisions dependent upon an understanding of science.

Further, the Zeiss LSM 980 will strengthen the ability of Rutgers-Newark to hire and retain top-shelf faculty whose research and teaching skills will add to education, training, and outreach at Rutgers-Newark. The LSM 980 will provide new faculty in the biological science with an essential modern-day research instrument that is vital for success in obtaining extramural grant funding and in publishing peer-reviewed work.

The Zeiss LSM 980 with Airyscan 2 provides a state-of-the-art microscopy workstation that provides multi-dimensional fluorescence imaging as well as super-resolution research capacity. The microscope will support fundamental research examining the mechanisms of cell signaling and membrane-protein sorting in neural, intestinal epithelial, and bacterial cells.

The Zeiss LSM 980 will enable researchers will use novel fluorescent-reporter proteins in conjunction with innovative genetic animal and in vitro cell/organoid models to follow the dynamics and regulatory function of small GTPases and transcription factors in regulating cell and tissue differentiation and maintenance. Super-resolution fluorescence imaging and photo-manipulation will be used to discover novel protein-membrane and protein-protein interactions in the assembly of macromolecular complexes that regulate lipid transport, assembly of cell surface receptors, and intracellular sorting of signaling complexes in bacterial membranes, during myelin formation in peripheral nervous system, and embryonic development in mammalian central.

The Zeiss LSM980 will be used in state-of-the-art optogenetic experimentation on the important role of cytoskeleton-chromatin interactions on gene expression and epigenetics. Additionally, the microscope will be used to provide multi-dimensional fluorescence imaging of cell signaling and remodeling pathways activated in response to tissue and cell injury from trauma including, impact, stretch, radiation, and chemical insult.

All the research projects are fully integrated with STEM education/training of high school, undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral students serving as the foundation for improved STEM literacy and future leadership.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.