Acquisition of a Confocal Microscope

Harvey Mudd College, Claremont CA

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Harvey Mudd College under the direction of Dr. David J. Asai for the acquisition of a confocal fluorescence microscope. The understanding of living systems depends on the ability to obtain images of cells and tissues in four dimensions, with the timescales of the fourth dimension ranging from molecular reactions to evolution by natural selection. High-resolution confocal fluorescence microscopy is a powerful vehicle with which to visualize cellular dynamics. Over the past decade, this technology has matured so that today confocal microscopy is a widely applied standard tool of biology. The shared confocal microscope facility will advance research projects aimed at the visualization of dynamic processes in a diversity of experimental systems and timescales: (i) membrane lipids in the cold signaling response in plants; (ii) control of cell shape by molecular motors in ciliated protozoa; (iii) reorganization of cellular proteins that accompanies the differentiation of corneal cells; (iv) development of new technologies to visualize tissue remodeling; and (v) measurement of population diversity and evolution of soft corals. Further, a key use of the facility will be in undergraduate education, including undergraduate research projects and a formal laboratory course in cell biology. Harvey Mudd College is a small, highly selective, undergraduate institution that focuses on science, engineering, and mathematics. The confocal microscope will present an important new opportunity to engage these talented students in the process of biological discovery. The instrument will facilitate interdisciplinary discovery and learning (the five co-PIs are in Biology, Engineering, and Physics), enable undergraduate research (last year there were 28 research students, of whom 16 are women, in the five laboratories), and anchor a new laboratory module in confocal fluorescence microscopy. Surprisingly, despite the fact that confocal microscopy is now a standard tool in biology, the confocal microscope acquired through this award will be the first confocal microscope on the seven Claremont Colleges, and will thus represent an important new resource for faculty and students across the Claremont campuses.