Research Project
10387590
PROJECT SUMMARY This is a shared instrumentation NOSI grant application at the University of South Florida (USF) to request FiberVision S automatic scanner developed by Genomic Vision. The PIs are part of the Genome Integrity and Mechanisms of Aging focus group within the Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology department. The primary research focus of my research group is to delineate genome maintenance mechanisms that promote DNA duplication and genome stability when cells are challenged with replication stress. The collective research areas of both the research teams will benefit from the instrument that will allow high throughput studies on genome duplication and integrity in human cells. The versatile fluorescence scanner can be utilized for a number of applications including DNA replication dynamics (origin firing, replication elongation, stalled fork stability studies, fork restart studies) and chromosomal rearrangement analyses (deletions, copy number variations, inversions, translocations). An added advantage is to combine DNA combing experiments with FISH hybridization to interrogate genomic-loci specific changes in DNA replication. Although the research programs are diverse, the overarching goal of the investigators is to explore the relevance of genome duplication events to human diseases such as Blooms syndrome and cancer. An automated fluorescence microscope with the self-aided capabilities of scanning, image acquisition and data analyses will substantially benefit our research program and further our ability to maximize research output.
