an IMAGING CENTER:
‘OUR TELESCOPE into
the MICROSCOPIC WORLD’
When David Althoff (left) tells people he studies wasps,
the reaction is often surprise. “The first thing that pops into
their minds is a hornet or yellow jacket or something that stings humans,” explains the Syracuse University biology professor.
“In reality, there is a huge diversity of wasps, which hardly anybody knows about, including species that attack plant-eating
insects. We’re just beginning to realize how these wasps can be useful in controlling pests.”
Althoff, whose research interests include the natural
control of agricultural pests, studies more than 30 species of insects.
Like many of his colleagues in the biological sciences, he relies on observation at the microscopic level to understand how
organisms function. This is why an Imaging Center—capable of fluorescence microscopy of fixed and living tissue—is vital to
the success of his work in SU’s Life Sciences Complex, presently under construction. “The Imaging Center is our telescope into
the microscopic world,” Althoff says. “It lets us view parts of insects and other organisms that we can’t see with the naked
eye.” When protein engineering (the use of molecular biology techniques to label specific proteins with fluorescent markers)
is applied to modern fluorescence microscopy, scientists can actually watch specific proteins move and function in living and
fixed specimens, providing them with a remarkably powerful set of investigative tools.
SU’s Life Sciences Program is seeking support for an Imaging Center that benefits faculty members and postdoctoral fellows, as
well as undergraduate and graduate students. Biology department chair John Russell says that the center will also serve a
multi-institutional function, fostering collaboration with nearby SUNY ESF and SUNY Upstate Medical University. “Having an
Imaging Center will certainly put SU on the map of the biological sciences and make us more competitive nationally.”
“Up-to-date imaging centers are the present and future of biology,” says biology professor Brian Calvi, whose studies of
cell division in the Drosophila fruit fly are leading to discoveries of how cancer and developmental abnormalities occur in
humans. “The ability to see the behaviors and locations of proteins and cells will allow us to evaluate what the proteins
are doing in those cells, and what goes wrong when we have certain mutations.” According to Calvi, new advances in technology,
spurred by the integration of physics and optics, are allowing scientists to view multiple proteins at once.
Biology professor Melissa Pepling (second from left) agrees with these assessments and underscores the particular importance
of a properly equipped Imaging Center to her research. “I study how egg cells develop. If they don’t develop properly or if
they’re exposed to certain chemical compounds, they might be infertile. I use imaging techniques to figure out what’s going on.”
Pepling’s research on the possible dangerous effects of soy products on female fertility was recently referred to by The Wall
Street Journal.
“Developmental processes occur at a microscopic level,”
says biology professor Craig Albertson (right), whose study of the
craniofacial skeleton in bony fishes puts him at the interdisciplinary crossroads of genetic, developmental, and evolutionary
studies. “Our ability to visualize, in real time, such processes as cell-to-cell interactions and tissue interactions, is vital
to piecing together the developmental program in fish, which has parallels in humans.”