Federal grants to support research, equipment acquisition

Three recently approved federal grants to Skidmore College will support specific research by two College biologists as well as the purchase of a new Libra 120 transmission electron microscope that will enhance both faculty and undergraduate research in the sciences.

Details are as follows:

• Skidmore has been awarded a grant of $664,737 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the purchase of a Libra 120 transmission electron microscope (TEM). Skidmore scientists involved with the purchase and installation of the equipment are Professor of Biology Domozych, department colleagues Marc Toso, associate director of the College's Microscopy Imaging Center, Bernard Possidente, professor, Sylvia Franke McDevitt, assistant professor, and Rajesh Nagarajan of the Chemistry Department.

• Domozych has also received nearly $232,000 from the NSF to direct a project titled "NSF MCB RUI:  The cell biology of pectin dynamics in the Charophycean Green Algae:  Homogalacturonan secretion in the model organism, Penium margaritaceum."

• Possidente is a co-principal investigator on a $10,000 collaborative grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health directed toward Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center. Working with center director Mark Rea and Mariana Figuera, assistant professor, Possidente will explore the role of circadian clock function on risk factors for breast cancer.  The project is titled "Light as a Controlling Stimulus for Behavior, Cancer Research:  Bridging Human Exposures to Animal Models for Parametric Investigations." 

Penium (detail).

NSF funds will enable Skidmore to purchase a new transmission electron microscope to replace a 13-year-old system in the Skidmore Microscopy Imaging Center (SMIC).  Considered state-of-the-art, the Libra 120 TEM will allow for high-resolution imaging, electron tomography and three-dimensional imaging, elemental analyses and digital image capturing.  It is, says Domozych, "pretty special to have this kind of microscope with these kinds of capabilities."  He is especially enthusiastic about the digital and ultra-high resolution capabilities of the microscope—"it is the best biological electron microscope on the market today." 

The new microscope will be used for detailed research involving the cell walls of green algae and higher plants, gregarine protists, bacteria, and fruit flies, in courses spanning biology, neuroscience, chemistry, geosciences, and physics.  In addition the microscope will serve in a new collaborative association of researchers from Albany Medical College.  Domozych explained, "This will allow for more effective sharing or resources with a nearby organization that does not have a TEM." Collaboration is at least 6 months away (following purchase and installation of the microscope) but will essentially allow for AMC researchers to use the equipment for their projects and the possibility of Skidmore students working with bio-medical researchers at Albany Med.

One aspect of the new TEM is "energy filtering."  According to Domozych, this will provide for outstanding contrast of specimens without having to stain them first, leading to a less-manipulated specimen.  In addition, the electron tomography component of the microscope will allow for three-dimensional images that can be rotated, and thus more thorough analysis.

Few other schools have such equipment on their campuses, said Domozych, citing Princeton as one that recently purchased this microscope.  "For biology students, this is as state-of-art as you can get.  It will afford opportunities for our undergraduates to get serious, top-level training," he added. Skidmore's tradition of research that involves microscopy, as evidenced by the SMIC itself, is enhanced by this acquisition, Domozych said.

The new microscope is expected to be installed in campus between the fall and spring semesters.

Domozych's new research grant will cover two years starting in January 2010.  The project will use multiple cell and molecular biology technologies to investigate pectin secretion in the unicellular green alga Penium margaritaceum. 

He is excited about both the pure and applied potential applications of the research.  Explained Domozych, "Penium is on its way to being considered a 'model' organism, and provides a great tool for elucidating the basic cell biology, evolution and molecular biology of green plants."  He isolated the organism from a wetland in Greenfield, N.Y., and in several labs around the world, the genome of the organism is currently being sequenced.  He anticipates that the information gained from this research will lead to greater clarity about the ways pectins are synthesized and secreted by plants.  Additionally, Penium may provide a valuable unicellular system for genetic transformation that will lead to its use in the secretion of important products used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. During the summers of the two-year study, he will have the assistance of two full-time undergraduate research students.

The new research will interface with a current NSF-funded project on which Domozych is a co-principal investigator:  "Evolution of the land plant cell wall:  Functional significance of land plant polymers within the Charophycean Green Algae."  This yearlong pilot study, which started this summer, will use combinatorial strategies, such as light and transmission electron microscopy and biochemical technologies to screen for cell wall polymers in the most primitive group of extant green plants, the Charophycean Green Algae.

Co-investigators on this evolution research are Michael Gretz, Michigan Technological University; Charles Delwiche of the University of Maryland; William Willats of the University of Copenhagen; and Arland Hotchkiss of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to Domozych, "The results of this current project will assist in our understanding of plant evolution and identify the ways plants synthesize important polymers that are used by humans in the agricultural, textile, and medical industries."  This grant will support one Skidmore undergraduate research assistant for two weeks in January 2010 and eight weeks next summer.

Possidente's RPI research partners  are studying the biological effects of lighting.  It's known that women who work night shifts (e.g. nurses in particular) and airline workers subjected to frequent jet lag have a higher rate of cancer. The RPI research combines animal and human models to study effects of disrupting sleep cycles and circadian biological clock function on health, particularly with respect to cancer and type 2 diabetes. 

They will collect data that will permit circadian clock function in response to light stimuli in animal models to be precisely and accurately translated into functionally equivalent stimulus-responses in humans.  The goal is to improve the validity of the most commonly used animal models for human circadian clock function and facilitate design of more effective experiments in future studies.

 

 

Tags: nsf, nih, rpi, david domozych, bernie possidente