Michael S. Grace, PhD - US grants

This award supports the acquisition of a variable pressure scanning electron microscope and support equipment for an existing film-based transmission electron microscope. The instrumentation will provide improvements to Florida Tech University's central multidisciplinary microscopy and imaging facility, which is the only advanced microscopy and imaging facility in east central Florida. The improved facility will dramatically enhance ongoing research and training programs in sensory neurobiology, palynology and climate change, developmental biology of marine invertebrates, novel fire-retardant polymers, hydrogen storage materials and molecularly imprinted polymers, novel photonic nanosensors, and nanoscale semiconductors. Because Florida Tech is a hub of interaction between NASA, the Kennedy Space Center, private industry, regional marine laboratories, a local hospital, and state and local governmental agencies, these instruments will help grow existing partnerships and develop productive new ones. In addition to graduate training, novel undergraduate research will also be actively promoted. Through use in primary research, new training courses, and workshops and symposia, the new instruments will significantly expand research and training opportunities in the Biological and Marine Sciences, Nanotechnology, and Materials Sciences groups. These instruments will also provide an important new forum for ongoing and developing programs that promote scientific investigation to area high school students and teachers.

This award is for the acquisition of a confocal laser scanning microscope for the institution's departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. The microscope will be used for research in: neurobiology of sensory systems; ecology and functional biology of fish; retinal development of fish and turtles; mechanisms of visual pigment regeneration; and regulation of the cell cycle.

Florida Tech is the only university on Florida's Space Coast, near the Kennedy Space Center and a high-tech corridor, and situated on a marine estuary. Therefore Florida Tech interacts with NASA, the Kennedy Space Center, private industry, regional marine laboratories, a local hospital, and state and local governmental agencies. The confocal microscope will help grow existing partnerships and develop new ones. The confocal microscope will expand research and training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and it will provide a new opportunity for promoting science to area high school students and teachers.

The goal of this research is to determine the mechanisms underlying predatory and defensive behavior guided by an extraordinarily novel sensor in snakes. Pit vipers, pythons and boas) possess special organs that form images in the brain of the thermal environment, much like vision occurs in the human brain. Thus, these snakes "see" heat, and this amazing system is the most sensitive infrared detector on Earth, natural or artificial. A better understanding of infrared-based thermal imaging in snakes is important not only for understanding complex behavior in these highly efficient predators, but also for understanding the evolution of imaging sensors and the behaviors they support in other animals including people. The Grace laboratory (Florida Institute of Technology) will determine the mechanisms of infrared (thermal) imaging by rattlesnakes and pythons, using molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology and behavior. This research will identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms of high-sensitivity thermoreception, and will provide an exciting new motivation-based behavioral assessment of sensory function. This work will advance the development of artificial sensor technologies for industrial, defense, and biomedical applications. It will also provide new insight into the ecology and management of native and invasive species including the diamondback rattlesnake (a pit viper) and the Burmese python, an invasive megapredator now firmly established in south Florida, and capable of spreading across the southern United States. This work will help determine how these highly efficient snakes operate in their thermal environments, and should help mitigate the ecological impact of non-native species like the Burmese python. The research includes hands-on training of graduate and undergraduate students including women and minorities. Finally, whether people consider pythons and pit vipers charismatic or terrifying, they generate tremendous interest, and the Grace laboratory will use this excitement to engage in productive public outreach.