MRI: Acquisition of a white light laser confocal microscope for multidisciplinary research and teaching at a liberal arts undergraduate institution

Bates College, Lewiston ME

Investigators

Abstract

An award though the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant to Bates College provides funding to acquire a scanning confocal microscope with white light laser to expand teaching and research opportunities in fluorescence and interference-reflection microscopy. The confocal microscope will enhance and broaden microscopy applications available through the College's Imaging Center. The confocal will permit four research projects to collect novel data on a variety of important scientific questions across multiple disciplines, and be used on a semi-regular basis by five other faculty from Bates College and Bowdoin College in their research. In the classroom, confocal microscopy will become an immediate and integral tool in courses and be used in demonstrations in introductory physics and biology courses, affecting the education of more than 300 students per year. The microscope will also enhance Bates College's partnership with Southern Maine Community College by training and supporting the research of their faculty and students in workshop and research settings. A variety of novel research projects across multiple natural science fields, including developmental biology and toxicology, neuroscience and cell biology, physics, and chemistry, will be enabled by the confocal microscope. In particular: the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of two key structures in the zebrafish, the otic vesicle and the swim bladder, will be determined; the characterization of neurons involved in rhythmic motor behaviors will provide a comprehensive understanding of modulatory mechanisms of central pattern generator function across mollusks and other animals; the molecular photophysics of fluorophores used in localization-based nanoscopy will be examined to identify bright fluorophores with on/off switching properties that are optimal for live-cell imaging; and the optical scattering spectra of individual plasmonic gold nanorods and self-assembled nanorod clusters will be studied to determine the extent to which plasmonic effects are the source of experimentally measured nonlinear optical behavior. All proposed projects will engage undergraduate students in the lab, teach them about hypothesis-based research, and train them in critical inquiry across STEM fields. This microscope will be transformative to the research and teaching infrastructure at Bates College and in the State of Maine (an EPSCoR state).