Equipment: MRI Track 1 Acquisition of a Spinning-Disk Confocal Microscope for Cell and Molecular Biology Research and Undergraduate Teaching and Training

An award is made to the University of Portland (UP) to acquire a Spinning-Disk Confocal Microscope to enable Cell and Molecular Biology Research and Undergraduate Teaching and Training. UP is a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) where interest in undergraduate research is at an all-time high and faculty are securing regional and national research funding at exceptional rates.

The projects supported by this instrument make use of powerful model organisms, C. elegans and chicken embryos, and confocal microscopy will enhance the level of research and training the faculty can provide at UP to expose the next generation of the STEM workforce to the specialized technologies used in research. By including a major user from Lewis & Clark College, this microscope will enhance teaching and research training at two PUIs and unite a regional community of scientists.

This microscope will expose over one hundred students per year to quantitative image data analysis, and the PIs will incorporate advanced microscopy into ongoing outreach programs. UP is committed to bringing excellence in STEM training to a broad community, and acquisition of this system will make meaningful progress toward that mission.

The research programs supported span a diverse set of questions in molecular biology, including cell biology, genetics, neuroscience, and the microbiome. The researchers will work with students to generate high-resolution time-lapse and multi-position fluorescence microscopy datasets to visualize processes as they occur within living animals, including monitoring defects in chromosome movement as cells divide, quantifying the growth of gut bacteria, and visualizing the firing of neurons.

The results will have a significant impact on basic research into biological mechanisms such as the specification of developmental asymmetry between the gonad and intestine in embryos. They will also have relevance to human health, such as by helping to understand the effects of blood flow through coronary vasculature during cardiac development.

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.