High-tech microscope at Loyola gets $250k National Science Foundation funding

Photo courtesy of Loyola University Maryland.
Two Loyola University Maryland biology professors have won a $273,698 grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase a laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM). Wait, what did you say? Simply, it’s a super powerful microscope.
Associate Professor Rebecca Brogan and Assistant Professor Christopher Thompson expect the LSCM to arrive on campus in September, and the new microscope offers two noteworthy benefits: “the ability to image cells and tissues in 3D, and the ability to follow the movement and changes of molecules in cells in real time,” according to a press release.

Brogan told the Baltimore Business Journal it’s “uncommon” to have such a microscope on Loyola’s campus, since they’re found at Research I and Research II institutions. According to the school’s press release, three of the eight research projects underway that will utilize the LSCM are being conducted by professors at neighboring Towson University, Mount St. Mary’s University and Washington College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Thompson says the eight professors at Loyola who will use the LSCM will have between 12 and 14 students working with them per year.
“To have access to an LCSM at this stage of their educations will set these students apart from their peers at other institutions, and once they become proficient in its use, they will become trainers themselves, and gain further experience helping and training other students,” Thompson says in the release. “By working in our labs, they’ll cultivate a competitive edge whether they’re thinking of going on to graduate or medical school, an academic career, or directly into the workforce.”