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

Our research team works toward providing a better understanding of the ability of plants to adapt to environmental stresses, including drought, high salinity, insect and microbial pathogen attacks. Research in these fields will enable us to deal with crop failures caused by plant diseases and global environmental changes. The work done in our lab contributes to the global body of research being conducted to address the challenge of feeding the hungry in a way that is environmentally sustainable. The luciferase reporter gene system has been routinely used in plant biology to monitor gene expression. Its nondestructive chemistry enables high-throughput genetic screening and live imaging. Generation of reactive oxygen species during plants' stress responses can also be examined through a fluorescence assay. In addition, growth of pathogenic bacteria inside the plant tissue can be measured through a modern luciferase-based assay. These state-of-the-art experiments are just examples of tests that cannot be carried out without the availability of a High Resolution Photon Counting System (HRPCS), which we are requesting. Currently, such a system is not available in either Michael Smith Laboratories or the Botany Department at UBC. We urgently and desperately need funding to purchase a HRPCS to enable these advanced experiments. With the availability of this sensitive detection system, trainees including graduate students, technicians and postdoctoral fellows will have the flexibility to design and carry out delicate screens and innovative experiments for their scientific discoveries, which would otherwise be impossible. Due to its high flexibility and enabling features, the proposed HRPCS is expected to become one of the most popular, cutting-edge pieces of equipment in the interconnected central biology buildings of UBC campus.