Microscopy Center Gives Scientists a Unique Perspective on Cell Activity
INDIANAPOLIS -- Scientists at Indiana University -- and across the state
and the nation -- can peer inside live cells and analyze their structure
and activities with the advanced microscopy technology available in the
newly opened IU School of Medicine Research II building.
Since its beginning in 1996, the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy
has given researchers ever-more-powerful tools to create images -- both
still and moving -- of cells. The center, now one of the nation's most
advanced, is overseen by Bruce Molitoris, M.D., director of the Division
of Nephrology. Kenneth W. Dunn, Ph.D., is scientific director of the microscopy
center.
Using powerful microscopes, computers and software, precise lasers and
molecules that give off a fluorescent glow, researchers can view cells'
inner structures, note where particular proteins congregate, or even watch
in real time as proteins move along cellular "highways."
Dr. Molitoris says developing the center was the reason he came to the
IU School of Medicine 10 years ago, bringing the first imaging equipment
with him and starting the grant process that has made the center possible.
"The ability to safely utilize microscopy in living cells and animals,
to obtain information at cellular and intracellular levels, has revolutionized
our approach to understanding the biology of disease states," he
says. Moreover, scientists can watch the actions of drugs and other agents
in cells, judging their effectiveness.
With the completion of the sequencing of the human genome and its 30,000
or so genes, scientists are studying the functions of proteins ordered
up by those genes. Fluorescent microscopy provides a powerful tool for
that work, says Dr. Dunn. The movement and the locations of proteins in
the cells can speak volumes about their intended roles, he says.
Carrie L. Phillips, M.D., an assistant professor in the Department of
Pathology and the Division of Nephrology, says the imaging systems' potential
makes her feel "like a kid in a candy store with this equipment"
as she studies polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder that is estimated
to affect more than 600,000 Americans and millions worldwide, according
to the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation.
People with the disease develop cysts on their kidneys that grow and
multiply over time, eventually forcing patients to undergo dialysis or
transplants. Microscopy techniques enable Dr. Phillips to see where the
cysts develop in the kidney tubules, the tiny channels that carry urine
from the kidney's filters on the path that leads eventually to the bladder.
The center's equipment includes seven advanced microscopes along with
computers and other equipment for analyzing information. Center staffer
Jeff Clendenon has developed a software package called Voxx that lets
researchers convert the huge amounts of data collected into images using
standard personal computers instead of expensive computer graphics workstations.
The goal, says Dunn, has been to provide state-of-the-art imaging facilities
for researchers that would be too expensive for an individual lab to acquire,
use effectively, and maintain. Use of the center by IU faculty grew by
thirty-five percent last year, and scientists from outside IU are making
use of it as well.
About $2.5 million has been invested in the center's equipment. Funding
for the Center has come from the IU School of Medicine, the Indiana Genomics
Initiative, and the National Institutes of Health.
In 2001 the NIH awarded the center a $5 million George M. O'Brien Kidney
Research Center grant to develop new microscopy techniques for kidney
researchers. The grant also funds education activities -- for example,
16 researchers from across the country attended a six-day workshop on
"Optical Microscopy in Renal Research" in September. The center's
facilities also have been used for continuing education sessions for high
school and college biology teachers, and in an annual program that brings
gifted Indiana high school science students to campus for two days of
hands-on science.
For pictures and videos that demonstrate the center's work, see the web
site at www.nephrology.iupui.edu/imaging/.
###
Media Contact: Eric Schoch
317-274-7722
eschoch@iupui.edu
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
A STATEWIDE
RESOURCE
Phone
317 274 7722
Fax
317 278 8722