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

The objective of the present RTI proposal is to purchase a multi-modal plate reader. This equipment will be located at York University, School of Kinesiology. It will be shared by at least two laboratories and will be utilized highly on a daily basis. This plate reader is an essential piece of equipment, and will provide fundamental support to several on-going research projects in different areas of physiology, including projects currently supported by NSERC Discovery grants and by newly hired investigators in our program who are in the process of establishing their laboratories. It will contribute considerably to the training of highly qualified personnel, including undergraduate, graduate and NSERC summer students as well as postdoctoral fellows, technicians,research assistants and associates. This multi-modal plate reader offers within one single platform that is capable of running multiple applications that are routinely used in our laboratories, such as quantification of cell number and cell viability, and protein and DNA quantification. This equipment will replace an old machine that has broken down, and for which no replacement parts are available. This new machine offers even greater versatility than the old one, and thus will permit a wide range of assay types to be conducted by a large number of users. The acquisition of this new replacement equipment is essential to ensure that our research programs are able to continue to operate successfully without excessive delay.