2001 — 2004 |
Boyer, Barbara Danowski, Barbara Horton, J. Stephen Lauzon, Robert Chu-Lagraff, Quynh |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Acquistion of a Laser Confocal Microscope For An Integrated Microscopy Facility At Union College
A grant has been awarded to Drs. Quynh Chu-LaGraff, Barbara Boyer, Barbara Danowski, Stephen Horton, and Robert Lauzon at Union College to acquire a confocal microscope to be the centerpiece for a renovated Integrated Microscope facility. This instrument would substantially enhance and expand the research capabilities of five faculty with interests ranging from cellular motility, invertebrate development and evolution, genetic development, programmed cell death, to molecular neuroscience. Moreover, confocal technology as an innovative tool will be integrated into classroom laboratory training and individual student-faculty projects to enrich the research experience of undergraduates. Within the Biology Department, there are currently numerous projects that represent the integration of cellular, genetics, molecular, and developmental approach to biological science. Specifically, research include using fly and mouse model systems to better understand human neurological diseases, evolution of segmentation in primitive organisms, the role of centrosome reorientation in migrating cultured cells, genetic and molecular mechanisms governing mushroom development, and basic understanding of programmed cell death in colonial sea squirt Botryllus schlosseri. The instrument represents a critical investment to maintain and enhance academic research excellence both for faculty research and for the training of undergraduate researchers. It will also facilitate more active and productive faculty and student research interactions at Union College by bypassing the need to gain access to a confocal microscope elsewhere.
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2003 |
Chu-Lagraff, Quynh |
R15Activity Code Description: Supports small-scale research projects at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation’s research scientists but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. The goals of the program are to (1) support meritorious research, (2) expose students to research, and (3) strengthen the research environment of the institution. Awards provide limited Direct Costs, plus applicable F&A costs, for periods not to exceed 36 months. This activity code uses multi-year funding authority; however, OER approval is NOT needed prior to an IC using this activity code. |
Palmitoyl Protein Thioesterases in Neural Development
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The research goal is to investigate the biological roles of the Drosophila genes Palmitoyl Protein Thioesterase I and 2 (Ppt1 and Ppt2) in the developing and adult nervous system to facilitate the understanding of the pathogenesis of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL). INCL belongs to the class of pediatric neurological disorder collectively called Batten Disease. Defects in human PPT1 lead to INCL, which is characterized by autofluorescent lipopigment inclusions, abnormal lysosomal function, extensive neuronal cell death in the developing brain, degeneration of cognitive, motor and visual functions, and premature death. Loss of PPT2 in mice also leads to similar characteristics including reduced brain size, extensive motor and neuronal degeneration, and lipopigment accumulation. PPT1 and PPT2 proteins reside in the lysosome and catalyze the removal of palmitoylated fatty acids attached to the cysteine residue of lipid-modified proteins. Although both proteins have comparable thioesterase activity in vitro, PPT2 cannot rescue the metabolic defects caused by loss of PPT1. In spite of molecular identification, studies identifying the underlying INCL pathological mechanism are limited by poor understanding of PPT1 and PPT2 normal functions. Relatively little is known about the basic biology of either lysosomal proteins, and how defective palmitoyl-protein thioesterases lead to neurotoxicity and degeneration. A fundamental understanding of Ppt1 and Ppt2 and their basic biology in a genetically tractable model system is essential. Previously we have shown that Drosophila Ppt1 exhibits Ppt1-specific enzyme activity and is likely to be the fly version of PPTI. Drosophila also contains a homologous PPT2 protein, Ppt2. We plan to (1) identify the spatial, temporal, and subcellular expression profile of Ppt1 and Ppt2 transcripts and proteins during development and adult; (2) generate Ppt2 loss-of-function mutations by P-element excision mutagenesis; and (3) analyze Ppt2 mutants and compare it to existing Ppt1 mutants at the molecular, cellular, genetic, and behavioral level. These results will allow us to generate a working model for how these proteins regulate neuronal development and maintenance, protein turnover, and intracellular trafficking. Such information may provide insight into the mechanisms of pathogenesis by identifying potential elements that are compromised in Batten Diseases.
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2010 — 2013 |
Olberg, Robert (co-PI) [⬀] Chu-Lagraff, Quynh Chabris, Christopher Romero, Stephen |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Union College Renovation Project For Faculty and Undergraduate Research Facility
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project will renovate outdated laboratory space on the third floor of Butterfield Hall on the campus of Union College to create a Center for Neuroscience. The Center for Neuroscience will co-locate the neuroscience faculty research labs, enabling the core faculty to run their research program more effectively and share scientific resources more efficiently. An anticipated outcome of the enhanced facilities is increased interactions between neuroscience program faculty with each other and with students as well as collaborative research opportunities with student and faculty in the computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering, and bioengineering programs which are adjacent to the new Center's location.
Faculty in the renovated labs will conduct research and research training in areas of neuroplasticity, human cognitive abilities and behavioral dispositions, gender differences in spatial cognition, cognitive genetics, neural control of behavior, and basic molecular mechanisms underlying neurological disorders. Research techniques to be enabled by the Center include intracellular recording and dye injection of individual neurons, high-seed analysis of flight behavior, behavioral methodologies, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological techniques. Examples of research activities proposed for the new Center for Neuroscience include elucidating brain changes, i.e. neuroplasticity, that are involved in acquiring a new cognitive skill, understanding the individual differences in human cognitive abilities and the neural mechanisms that underlie them, investigating the neural control of behavior in flying insects to understand the structure and function of neurons involved in visual control of stable flight, and studying the basic molecular mechanisms underlying specific neurological disorders.
With the new Center for Neuroscience, the College's students will have access to cutting-edge, technologically advanced, and diverse research opportunities that are usually only available to graduate students and post-doctoral research staff as much larger institutions. The Center will enable the College to accommodate the growing research and research training needs of the neuroscience interdisciplinary program, which was created in response to student demand in 2003. Additionally, the renovated research facility is expected to be used by participants of Union's Summer Science Workshop, a program for rising high school students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences and those facing economic disadvantages.
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