Keck Foundation Awards $1.25 Million Grant to The Jackson Laboratory for Biophysics Lab Instrumentation
| Date: February 28, 2005 | 
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Bar Harbor, Maine - The W. M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles has granted $1,250,000 to The Jackson Laboratory to help advance genome research through the use of advanced new microscopy technology.
"We're at the dawn of an amazing new era, in which powerful new instruments enable live cell imaging," says Dr. Barbara B. Knowles, vice president of The Jackson Laboratory for education, training and external scientific collaborations. "Thanks to this grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Laboratory and our collaborators are at the forefront of the fast-growing field of nanoscale biology."
The grant will contribute to the purchase and operation of a Leica 4Pi confocal laser scanning microscope and a Leica multiphoton microscope. The 4Pi instrument is the world's most advanced optical microscope-capable of revealing the nanostructure of genetic material within a cell in three dimensions. The first such instrument in the United States will be coming to the Institute for Molecular Biophysics' optical physics lab at The Jackson Laboratory this spring, thanks to the Keck grant and a $732,624 National Science Foundation grant in fall 2004 to The Jackson Laboratory.
The Institute for Molecular Biophysics brings together expertise in biophysics and engineering at the University of Maine in Orono, molecular and cell biology at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute (MMCRI) in Scarborough, and genetics and genomics at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. IMB's goal: to explore the structure and function of cells, and the genes and chromosomes within them, that direct both normal development and disease.
Once installed at The Jackson Laboratory, the 4Pi microscope will enable the IMB researchers to examine specific structures within a cell--such as a single gene on a chromosome--at a resolution four to seven times greater than previously possible.
The multiphoton microscope is at the cutting edge of live cell imaging and will enable researchers to see the movement of individual proteins and compounds within the living cell. For example, investigators can watch the fate of a therapeutic drug within a living cancer cell.
Based in Los Angeles, the W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The Foundation's grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science, and engineering. The Foundation also maintains a Southern California Grant Program that provides support in the areas of civic and community services with a special emphasis on children. For more information, visit www.wmkeck.org.
The Jackson Laboratory, founded 75 years ago, is the world's largest mammalian genetics research institution. Its research staff of more than 450 investigates the genetic basis of cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, diabetes, and many other human diseases and disorders. The Laboratory is also the world's source for nearly 3,000 strains of genetically defined mice, home of the Mouse Genome Database and many other publicly available information resources, and an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education.
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Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, The Jackson Laboratory, 207-288-6058, joyce@jax.org
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