MRI: Acquisition of a Laser Scanning Microscope with Multi-spectral Imaging and Super-resolution

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

An award is made to the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) to acquire a new laser scanning microscope (LSM) with multi-spectral imaging and super-resolution capabilities to support research and training in the life sciences. The LSM will be used for demonstrations for K-12 science classes of local public and private schools, as part of laboratory demonstrations and sessions for undergraduate and graduate university courses in the life sciences, participants in NSF REU programs and in other specialty workshops, and by undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral associates conducting research with UHM faculty. Attracting youth to careers in the sciences and training the next generation of scientists, engineers and educators in advanced techniques are major goals of our facility and this institution. The requested LSM will be used by researchers to answer fundamental questions in cell biology, developmental biology, ecology, marine biology, microbiology, oceanography, symbiosis and tropical agriculture. The new instrument will support NSF- and other funded research in a broad range of life sciences including: marine invertebrate-bacterial symbiosis; structure and function of marine bacterial communities; plant-fungal symbioses; crustacean peptide hormones; protein expression and enzyme function in a model plant; bacterial biofilms in marine larval settling; amphibian-microbe-fungal associations; and marine copepod population structure. The results from these studies will be published in scientific peer-reviewed journals, presented at scientific meetings, and used in both teaching and public outreach activities. 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.