Research Project
10404790
Project Summary The Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC) collects, curates, maintains and distributes strains of the fly Drosophila melanogaster to support the biomedical research community. It is the largest and most comprehensive Drosophila stock collection in the world, and it is central to the success of many research projects. The BDSC depends heavily on the smooth, efficient and dependable functioning of a media kitchen and dishwashing facility to produce and clean over four million vials of culture media used every year in the maintenance of live cultures. This proposal requests supplemental funding to replace aged pieces of equipment that represent weaknesses in reliability. Specifically, the kitchen cooker system needs a new temperature control unit installed to provide heat to the jacket of the kettle used to cook fly food and a new tank heater to preheat water as a food ingredient. The dishwashing facility needs a new autoclave for melting the agar-based food prior to clean up.
