Thanks to a $250,000 science initiative grant from the
Kresge Foundation, present and future Eastern Michigan
University students will be able to sort and isolate cells
on a new $100,000 piece of equipment. As well as do a whole
lot more.
A fluorescence activated cell sorter — one
of more than 20 pieces of new lab equipment purchased with
the Kresge grant and a matching amount of $500,000 raised
by EMU's biology and chemistry departments through the
leadership of the EMU Foundation — allows
faculty and students to run a cell through a computer and
tag an antibody or protein on the cell.
 |
CELL SORTING: (above, from left) Mike
Angell, an
associate professor
of biology, and Steve Rhoades, a
biology graduate
student, conduct an experiment
using the
department's new fluorescence activated
cell sorter.
The $102,000 piece of equipment
was
one of many purchased with a $250,000 grant
from the Kresge Foundation and
$500,000 raised
by EMU's biology and chemistry departments through
the EMU Foundation.
|
"Now, when a group of cells runs through the machine,
anything we tag can be separated into one area," explained
Tamara Greco, head of the biology department. "You can
look at only the cells you want to. You can conduct a purer,
more isolated study of cells."
Greco also is high on the $58,500 nutrient analyzer, which,
she said, can analyze nutrients in water or wetland materials
in a matter of days, as opposed to months, which is the
time it used to take faculty and students to sort out components
through chemical testing.
"This piece of equipment has automated it all instead
of a person doing each of the steps. For a place like Eastern
Michigan, we actually need this equipment more because
we don't have 10 graduate assistants available to mix solutions," Greco
said. It does allow us to have students exposed to the
latest equipment and experiences. We need students to see
state-of-the-art equipment and train on it. We want students
to really know what a real research experience is."
The Kresge Foundation is a $2.9 billion national foundation
that builds stronger nonprofit organizations. Eastern Michigan
was awarded the Kresge Foundation Science Initiative Grant
in March 2006, which gave EMU's biology and chemistry departments
the opportunity to purchase some much-needed scientific
equipment that will make a tremendous difference in the
education of EMU's students. The Kresge Foundation granted
EMU $250,000 to purchase the equipment after the biology
and chemistry departments raised $500,000 of its own money.
Of that $500,000, American Electric Power (AEP) donated
$250,000. The AEP gift was made possible by Michael Morris
('69, '73), a former EMU regent and AEP's chairman, president
and CEO; and EMU foundation Trustee Dale Heydlauff ('78),
vice president-New Generation, at AEP.
Greco stressed the importance of the role Patty
Warner, director of corporations and foundations at the
EMU Foundation, played in spearheading the effort to raise
the $500,000.
"The instrumentation obtained through the Kresge Foundation
Challenge Grant has greatly improved our ability to introduce
students to the appropriate use of modern instrumentation," said
Steve Pernecky, an associate professor of chemistry. "Specifically,
we have been able to modernize our biochemistry, physical
chemistry and organic chemistry laboratories."
For example, before the purchase of a new spectrophotometer,
students who wanted to investigate enzyme kinetic parameters
had to use a stop watch and a low-tech spectrophotometer
to capture the raw data, use graph paper to determine enzyme
activity for each of a dozen reactions (each reaction requires
at least 10 data points), and then re-plot the data on
graph paper (or using Excel) to determine the parameters,
Pernecky explained.
"Now, students can directly monitor enzyme reactions,
eliminating laborious manual data acquisition," he said.
The biology and chemistry departments are now in the midst
of working with the EMU Foundation to raise another $1
million (AEP has donated $100,000 to this effort) to create
an equipment endowment in order to receive another $250,000
check from the Kresge Foundation. When raised, the $1.25
million endowment will ensure that existing EMU lab equipment
will be able to be repaired, restored or replaced in the
future, Greco said.
"With our $35,000 equipment budget, we could barely buy
a piece of equipment," Greco said of the department's prior
situation. "In five years, some of this equipment will
be obsolete or too costly to repair. By getting the Kresge
initiative, we can prolong the life of equipment we purchase."
