UH receives a shared instrument grant from the NIH to enhance research
June 2, 2020
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a shared instrumentation grant (S10), to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The $382,000 grant will be used to purchase a live cell imaging microscope with multicolor total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy and photo-manipulation capabilities. The instrument will be housed in the Microscopy, Imaging, and Flow Cytometry Core Facility at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center.
The microscope will assist researchers who rely on live-cell imaging to study cell movement and migration, as these factors play a critical role in the growth, invasion, extravasation, and metastasis of cancer cells. “Having access to this instrument will enhance biomedical research capabilities at the Cancer Center and at other units across the University,”said Christine Farrar, PhD, Director of the Microscopy, Imaging, and Flow Cytometry Core.
The S10 grant comes from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs at the NIH. It is awarded to institutions to purchase equipment that would be too expensive for one researcher to purchase on their own. In order to be eligible for a shared instrumentation grant, an institution must have three or more researchers who demonstrate a need for the requested instrument to complete their projects currently funded by the NIH. This is the first time that this type of imaging system will be available in a core facility at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
“This grant provides funding for an advanced research microscope that will allow our researchers to probe the inner functions of cancer cells in greater detail than ever before. As a result, we will better understand the mechanisms that drive cancer cell growth, metastasis, and survival, allowing us to devise new therapeutic strategies to treat and diagnose cancer patients here in Hawaiʻi,” said Joe W. Ramos, PhD, UH Cancer Center Deputy Director.
The application for this grant was a collaborative effort by members of both the UH Cancer Center’s Cancer Biology Program and the John A. Burns School of Medicine’s Cell and Molecular Biology Department.
Grant Number: 1S10OD028515-01
