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

This application is for funding the purchase of a suite of instruments to microinject molecules into living cells and image the ensuing processes in a temperature controlled environment. There is currently no dedicated imaging platform equipped with an automated micro-injection system in Roger Guindon Hall. The lack of such infrastructure considerably limits the progress of several laboratories interested in addressing basic questions regarding subcellular organization and trafficking, such as nucleolar architecture, endosome and autophagosome trafficking, mitochondrial organization and other cellular processes. Given the transient or short-lived nature of these processes and architectures, the absence of a live-cell imaging system equipped with an automated micro-injector severely limits the ability of researchers in Roger Guindon Hall to utilize many innovative tools such as advanced fluorescent sensors of cellular processes, peptides, and interfering antibodies for example. This equipment is a feature of all modern biology research departments and will allow many researchers at the University of Ottawa to progress towards making fundamental discoveries in the life sciences. While helping several research laboratories in the Faculty, this platform will also expand the repertoire of techniques mastered by the numerous post-doctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students supervised in our laboratories.