The Cytoskeletal and Cell Motility Research Group, CCMG, in the Yale biology department has received a $608,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation for the acquisition and development of a high-resolution digital imaging facility. The light optics system will enhance the department's teaching and research facilities.
The CCMG -- consisting of biologists Paul Forscher, Mark Mooseker, Joel Rosenbaum and Joseph Wolenski -- will use the new instrumentation to study the molecular dynamics of cytoskeletal and membrane proteins. The facility, to be located on the second floor of Kline Biology Tower, will also be used for teaching modern, high- resolution light optical techniques at both undergraduate and graduate levels, Professor Rosenbaum said.
The new facility will supplement existing electron microscope research and teaching laboratories on the same floor, and the undergraduate teaching laboratories in protein and nucleic acid biochemistry. Professor Forscher's research focuses on mechanisms of neuronal growth and guidance during development and nerve regeneration. Professors Mooseker and Wolenski study the role of the many cellular myosins -- actin filament-associated molecular motors -- in cell and developmental biology.
Professor Rosenbaum's laboratory investigates the role of the microtubule-based molecular motor called kinesin in the assembly of cilia and flagella. The grant recipients carry out their undergraduate and graduate teaching, as well as their research, collaboratively.