A multi-user facility for cell imaging and manipulation. (360G-Wellcome-079204_Z_06_Z)

This application is for equipment to provide facilities for cell manipulation, imaging and analysis. The proposal consists of six core projects. These projects are linked by a focus on molecular and cellular mechanisms that operate in development to produce patterned arrays of differentiated cells and by the exploitation of genetic techniques using simple model organisms. The specific goals of these projects are 1) to understand the way in which progenitor cells become polarised (Palacios); 2), 3) and 4) to understand how different cell fates are established and how these lead to stereotypic cell interactions that determine complex networks in the nervous system (Bate, Landgraf) or in tissues with functionally segregated domains (Skaer); 5) and 6) by using the patterns of differentiated cells revealed by segmentation (Akam) and by arrays of sensory bristles (Simpson), to uncover the molecular basis for divergence between closely related species that drives evolutionary change. The research programmes of all six groups require advanced techniques for image acquisition and analysis and for the manipulation or ablation of cells and subcellular structures. The most efficient and cost effective way to provide these resources is in the form of shared facilities to which each group has access.