Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

This proposal seeks funds to replace broken and outdated equipment and to expand the research capacity of the Carleton University Biomolecular Radiation Facility. This is the only wet lab space on campus with a maintained license for radioisotope work. Therefore, the Biomolecular Radiation Facility serves the diverse needs of researchers across the university, including within the Departments of Biology (Bruin, Biggar, Willmore, McKay, MacMillan), Neuroscience (Chee, Abizaid, McQuaid), and Health Sciences (Holcik, Cassol). This facility desperately needs to be updated and expanded to meet the growing needs of researchers in the Faculty of Science. This is particularly true for early career investigators, Drs Jennifer Bruin and Kyle Biggar. We urgently require two key pieces of equipment: an automated Gamma Counter and a Biomolecular Imager. The Bruin Lab studies how environmental factors, such pollutants, impact pancreatic endocrine cell function and survival. To thoroughly assess hormone secretion by endocrine cells, the Bruin Lab performs perifusion experiments that generate up to 600 effluent samples per experiment, which is not practical to measure by ELISA. The Bruin Lab urgently requires a high capacity, automated Gamma Counter to measure dynamic hormone secretion in a sustainable manner by radioimmunoassay. The Biggar Lab investigates how lysine methyltransferase (KMT) enzymes identify specific protein substrates for methylation. These studies apply recombinant KMTs to custom peptide arrays in reaction conditions that permit in vitro methylation-mediated transfer of radiolabeled 3H from 3H-S-adenosyl-methionine (3H-SAM) methyl-donor. Current film-based fluorography methods regularly require exposure times of up to 2 weeks and are often still not sensitive enough to detect the extremely low levels of 3H beta-decay. A Biomolecular Imager offers far more sensitive detection of radiolabeled peptides and dramatically reduces the experimental timeframe from weeks to hours. Thus, for urgent projects the Biggar lab is currently shipping labeled arrays to a collaborator in Israel for phosphorimaging, but this approach is not sustainable long-term. The Biomolecular Radiation Facility will be heavily used by researchers across campus, including at least 79 trainees per year. HQP will receive training from the Carleton University Radiation Safety Officer and instrument-specific training by a full-time lab technician with the Department of Biology. This new infrastructure will modernize our facility and greatly expand the number of techniques available to our HQP and diversify their skill set. This infrastructure is particularly critical for HQP in the Bruin and Biggar labs to complete their theses and continue to publish their research in high quality journals.