Barbara Clancy - US grants

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Steven W. Runge and colleagues at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) to obtain a Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope (LSCM). This instrument has the ability to capture images of cells and cellular structures that are tagged with fluorescent markers with a resolution unmatched by other types of light microscopy. The ability of the LSCM to acquire optical sections and construct 3-D images from a variety of live and prepared tissues and to perform time-course analyses on living cells and tissues will impact a wide range of research programs at UCA. Investigations that will employ the LSCM range from 3-D reconstruction of complex tissues such as actively growing plant shoots and brains of rats and marine snails to tracking the movement of structures inside of cultured cells and native tissues. Collectively, acquisition of this instrument will elevate faculty and student research at UCA to new levels of sophistication. This will allow researchers to address questions that previously were inaccessible. A significant benefit of having this work conducted at UCA, rather than at distant institutions, will be the heightened opportunities for our undergraduates to become involved in research. Our graduate students (master's level) will also acquire important experience and skills that will promote future research and professional study.

The LSCM will be used to address a wide variety of research questions in the natural sciences. These include: the rapid assay and localization of plant pigments involved in responses to UV-light; morphological characterization of neurons in the white matter of mammalian brains; tracking the exocytic insertion of potassium channels into intestinal membranes for osmoregulation in marine gastropods; visualization of synaptic connections involved in behavioral decisions in whole brains of marine gastropods; understanding mechanisms that underlie the selective death of Purkinje cells during maturation of the rat cerebellum; tracking the movement of developmental signals that direct inflorescence architecture in flowering plants; examination of secretory canals in plants and the effects of trenching insects on latex/oil distribution; and ratio imaging to monitor intracellular pH and time-course imaging of vesicular trafficking of Na+/H+ exchangers in cultured cells undergoing apoptosis. Methodologies to be employed include visualization of autofluorescent molecules and structures in plant tissues, tagging stuctures with fluorescent antibodies, filling individual brain cells with fluorescent molecules to identify connections to other cells, and labeling cell-surface proteins with fluorescent markers to follow the movement of these proteins to and from the cell surface under different conditions.

In addition to research, the LSCM will be a valuable addition to science instruction at UCA. Confocal microscopy will help students visualize complex 3-D processes in biology and make measurements on living cells that will be invaluable assets to teaching. For instance, stages of frog embryo development will be recorded as a set of 3-D, time-course images that trace this dynamic process. These images will then be made available for analysis in the classroom. The stunning images produced by LSCM will also be used to generate interest in the sciences among high school students and teachers through various outreach programs and the Arkansas education media centered here on the UCA campus. The University's enrollment of about 8,500 students is 62% female and 19% minority, with the later group steadily increasing in proportion over the last decade. Acquisition of the LSCM will strengthen faculty research capabilities, support strong undergraduate research programs, attract more women and minority students to careers in the sciences, increase public appreciation of science, and support programs in a historically under-supported geographic area.

early experience; developmental neurobiology; neurons;

Led by the University of Central Arkansas, a team of researchers from multiple universities has been awarded a grant to develop tools that will help researchers compare and predict brain development across species including humans. Many aspects of human brain development are studied in non-human species such as rats or rhesus monkeys. Yet little data are available on how to convert the timing of brain development from experimental species to humans. Moreover, one research group might study brain growth in hamsters, who are born relatively early in development, and another investigate the same process in guinea pigs, who are ready to leave the nest shortly after birth - leaving each laboratory group puzzled as to how to best relate results from one study to the other. The project: Collaborative Research: A Web-Based System for Modeling and Predicting Neurodevelopment Across Mammalian Species, addresses this cross-species conversion problem employing researchers and students in neuroscience, evolutionary science, computer science, data mining, mathematics and statistics. These researchers produce, maintain and update a unique interactive web-based program that can model, compare and predict brain development across diverse species including hamsters, mice, rats, rabbits, spiny mice, guinea pigs, ferrets, cats, rhesus monkeys, and humans http://www.translatingtime.net/. They are able to do this because brain development in all species occurs in somewhat similar fixed sequences, allowing us to employ statistics to relate across a database constructed from dates of brain development assembled from the vast published literature. This web program is the only place where this depth of cross species comparative data can be found and easily accessed. The most obvious, and most pragmatic, impact of this web-based interface is that it provides users with predicted dates of brain development for humans where data are unavailable because studies have not been, or cannot be, accomplished. For scientists working with other species, there is direct financial savings when intervals for experimental study can be compared and/or efficiently narrowed because resources, such as number of animals and/or valuable research time, can be significantly reduced. This work also permits research previously accomplished in rats to be equated to current and future studies done in mice, something that is particularly useful at this time because mice are the species currently favored in many studies, but most of the previous brain research was accomplished in rats. There are some brain events that cannot be modeled across all species, but these exceptions actually help us to understand species differences, including some aspects of development that might serve to make humans different from non-human species. Products of this award will be available at http://www.translatingtime.net/.