NYMC Receives $594K NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant
The collaborative efforts by a team of New York Medical College (NYMC) faculty researchers from across all of the basic science disciplines have paid off to the tune of nearly $600,000.
The grant proposal team made up of nearly 20 NYMC faculty and led by Dana G. Mordue, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology, secured a Shared Instrumentation Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which will be used to purchase a new high-resolution confocal microscope. This new microscope will be critical to the College’s biomedical research. The confocal system will allow NYMC’s researchers to quantitatively visualize dynamic processes in living specimens gently over extended periods of time (4D imaging). The increased sensitivity and high resolution will be particularly valuable to image thicker tissue sections/slices in a wide variety of biological specimens.
As the vice chancellor for Middle States Accreditation and co-chair of the College’s Strategic Planning Initiative, the successful large-team grant approach that guided the College’s winning grant application process is reflective of Dr. Mordue’s commitment to furthering NYMC’s strategic plan. Toward this end, this large-team grant initiative was in response to a need recognized via surveys of active NYMC researchers over the last two years, which overwhelmingly highlighted the critical need for a core that supports advanced confocal imaging of live and fixed cells and tissues. Investigators at the College worked for more than a year to identify the most appropriate confocal system for the College.
According to Salomon Amar, D.D.S., Ph.D., vice president for research at NYMC and provost for biomedical research and chief biomedical research officer for Touro College and University System, “At NYMC, collaborative research is a strategic endeavor and our faculty are working more strategically to create winning proposals like this one. I am exceptionally proud of our team of researchers and their winning collaborative spirit which made this NIH grant funding possible.”
Similarly, Dr. Mordue explains, “A key strategic priority for NYMC is to build the College’s biomedical research. The development and expansion of instrumentation in the NYMC research cores, including the NYMC Histopathology Laboratory and Imaging Core were identified as one of the top strategic priorities in the College's recent Strategic Plan.” She continues, “This is critical instrumentation for the NYMC research community. Not only will this acquisition enhance our research footprint and capabilities—but it will also help to ensure our ability to retain creative and successful faculty. The instrument will also be important for establishing current and new research centers and the recruitment of highly qualified new faculty to build our research mission.”
With eyes set firmly toward the future, Dr. Mordue says, “A key requirement for the College choice of the proposed high-resolution and highly sensitive confocal system was that it be an imaging platform that the College and investigators can build upon and expand to meet the imaging needs of both present and future researchers and research projects.”