Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
Project Summary/Abstract This application requests funds to acquire a Typhoon 5 imaging platform, urgently needed to replace and upgrade the outdated and no longer factory-supported Typhoon 9500 in the Shared Instruments Pool (SIP) core facility in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder. The Typhoon 5 is a high-sensitivity, high-resolution imaging platform for the imaging, characterization, and precise quantification of proteins, RNA, DNA, small molecules, and complexes. The multimode imager includes phospho imaging for radioisotope labeled samples, multi-color fluorescence detection (red, green, blue, and two near-infrared channels), calorimetric densitometry, and limited chemiluminescence. It can image in many different targets, including phospho storage screens, gels, membranes, TLC plates, multiwell plates, and microarrays. The extensive biomolecular imaging capabilities are essential for many biomedical research programs at CU Boulder. SIP provides a combination of cutting-edge instrumentation and well-maintained basic research instrumentation to the CU research community. The core facility widely and positively impacts many biomedical research programs at CU-Boulder, but this requires acquiring and maintaining advanced, state-of-the-art instrumentation. The current Typhoon 9500 in SIP has over the last five years served 182 individual users from 31 research groups in 5 departments and institutes at CU Boulder. A core group of 12 research labs - including 10 NIH-funded groups (a total of 15 ongoing NIH-funded projects) and two early-stage investigators from three departments - is currently relying heavily on the imaging capabilities of the Typhoon. The imager is used to collect publishable data (e.g., activity assays, binding stoichiometry, sequencing gels, and much more) and to quality control and optimize samples for downstream experiments. The new Typhoon 5 will serve existing biomedical research projects and will add new capabilities with two additional fluorescence channels in the NIR for increased sensitivity and improved signal-to-noise for challenging samples. The new Typhoon 5 in SIP will be available to all research groups at CU Boulder supported by the well- established management and financial structure that has served SIP and its research community well for the last 10 years. SIP staff will offer expertise and aid from experiment design to training, data collection, troubleshooting, and data analysis. This strong support structure empowers new and existing users to conduct pilot studies to test new experiments and research projects. It increases the success rate and minimizes the financial burden for research groups. This is essential for the future of biomedical research and will positively impact many new research programs at CU Boulder from innovative, basic research seeking to understand the fundamental mechanisms that govern human life and health (e.g. gene regulation, cell signaling, membrane biology, aging, and more) to translational research, for example, developing new drug targets, new therapeutic small molecules, antimicrobials, and drug delivery methods.
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