Acquisition of a PALM Laser Trap Microscope

Dartmouth College, Hanover NH

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Dr Roger D. Sloboda at Dartmouth College to purchase a Microscope for laser based micromanipulation and collection of living or fixed cells and manipulation of subcellular particles. This instrument will provide new capabilities for the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth, with respect to faculty and graduate student research and undergraduate instruction. The capabilities of this microscope are currently unavailable to this group of faculty anywhere else within a reasonable distance in New Hampshire or Vermont. The microscope uses laser-based technology under computer control to move, manipulate, and collect cells and subcelluar parts of cells for further analysis. The characteristics of design and ease of use indicate this microscope will bring these capabilities to the students and faculty at Dartmouth. The faculty that will make use of this instrument are members of the Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate program, and they cover in their research the biological spectrum from yeast to higher plants and animals. All of the ongoing research projects are amenable to approaches using modern, computer enhanced microscope image acquisition and analysis techniques. Thus, this instrumentation provides a unifying focus for the research efforts of the user group. Some specific examples of the projects at Dartmouth that will benefit from this instrumentation here are studies on: membrane bound vesicle trafficking during lipid homeostasis, formation and maintenance of the poles of the mitotic spindle, the cell component responsible for separating the chromosomes at cell division, the effect of endogenous and exogenous steroids on early embryological development, the axoplasmic transport of membrane bound vesicles in neurons, changes in cellular autofluorescence as an indicator of future cancerous growth of cells in culture, and the role of specific nuclear proteins in cell division. This brief list highlights just a few of the projects that will immediately benefit from the awarded equipment. High resolution light microscopy and enhanced visualization technologies have long been the focus of faculty in the Biological Sciences at Dartmouth, and this award is coincident with the historical development of this department over the past three decades. The acquisition of a microscope capable of laser ablation, laser based cell isolation, and laser trap manipulations of cells and subcellular particles will complement nicely the current instrumentation and greatly improve the research and training environment for the faculty and for the graduate and undergraduate students in this department. The laser microscope will enhance the research productivity of the faculty as well as the training environment for the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students at Dartmouth. Thus, the research enterprise in the Biological Sciences at Dartmouth will be significantly enhanced.