As a collaboration among two colleges, researchers will soon acquire a $350,000 high-tech microscope that will allow them to observe dynamic processes in living specimens.
The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant to NIU through its Major Research Instrumentation Program that will bolster University research and academic programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. The funds will be used to purchase a Zeiss LSM 900 with Airyscan 2 Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (CLSM).
The CLSM will also allow researchers to track interaction among molecules and capture multiple two-dimensional images at different depths, enabling users to create three-dimensional high-resolution images. Academic programs that will benefit from this microscope include biology, physics, chemistry, psychology and engineering.
Shared use was the focus of the grant application headed by Biological Sciences Professor Linda Yasui and co-primary investigators Donald Peterson, dean of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (biomedical engineering), Olivier Devergne (biological sciences), Elizabeth Gaillard (chemistry and biochemistry) and Tao Li (chemistry and biochemistry).
The microscope is expected to generate new knowledge that will expand our understanding of life processes.

The microscope, which will be available during the Spring 2021 semester, will support many opportunities for research and education for graduate and undergraduate students. NIU faculty plan to apply the new technology to a wide array of studies, including cancer and cancer treatment, developmental defects, antibiotic development, regenerative medicine, nanomedicine, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, the study and prevention of aneurysms, the effects of stress on the brain, and the formation of new neurons in the brain.
The microscope will also provide educational experiences to train the next generation of STEM scientists with annual training for undergraduate and graduate students to prepare them for professional positions or graduate education.
“We’re hoping to inspire the next generation of researchers and to close the gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students,” Yasui said. “Undergraduates exposed to research benefit from the experience in the form of improved grades and retention. This is particularly true of underrepresented groups and first-generation students.”
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