Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Every living thing on the planet is made up of small units called "cells". Each cell has the ability to reproduce itself, or to morph into a specialized cell type. For example brain cells called neurons have the ability to transmit nerve impulses. Other brain cells called glia serve as support for the neurons. Several diseases are caused by defects in the way cells work. For instance, cancer is caused when cells lose their ability to stop reproducing. One of the major advances of the past 50 years in cell biology has been the realization that cells are made up of molecules, and that understanding how these molecules work can lead to a better understanding of many diseases. To study how cells work, scientists often need to introduce DNA molecules into their favorite cell type. They then observe what the effect of introducing this DNA molecule has on the behavior of the cell. Introducing DNA into cells is called transfection, and scientist have been quite ingenious in inventing different technologies for transfecting DNA into a particular cell type. Some technologies work better than others on a given cell, while some cells resist taking up DNA. The applicants are involved in studying different aspects of the cell, from programmed cell death to muscle function to the way the different "assembly lines" in the cells talk to each other when they transform one chemical into another. However, several of the cell types used by the applicants are difficult to transfect. The purchase of a "nucleofector device", which uses a new DNA transfer technology, would greatly impact the applicants' research programs by enabling them to introduce DNA into their favorite cell types with high efficiency and low toxicity to the cells.