C-Trap for the North East

World-class research programmes at the Universities of Durham, Hull, Newcastle and York, are currently limited by a lack of turnkey optical trapping capabilities. Laser-trapping enables the real-time manipulation, visualisation (with and without fluorescence) of single molecules (DNA/RNA/Protein) to study their interactions. Here we are seeking to purchase a LUMICKS C-Trap, which offers a user-friendly, highly automated system to image molecular and cell-cell interactions. The system would be sited in the Bioscience Technology Facility (BTF) at the University of York to enable this step-change in capability and support research across the consortium as well as opening up access to any spare capacity to other external users as part of a EuroBioimaging site. Critically, it is not just access to the instrumentation, but the expert support (whole new post subject to grant funding equal to £327k matched contribution) from design to analysis that will help maximise the capabilities and impacts to as wide a user base as possible. This will elevate and transform biological research regionally, nationally and internationally. We have assembled a critical mass of users across our four Universities, all with ready to go experiments that will add significant impact to their current and future BBSRC (27 active within last 5 years) funded research, whilst providing cross-collaborative research and best practice support. Longer-term, York alone has a diverse range of users in biochemistry, biophysics, chemical biology, plant biology, microbiology, cell biology, immunology, neurobiology, cancer, stem cell biology, structural biology and physics, all of whom will be potential beneficiaries outside the consortium along with other potential external users (see letters of support for examples). Highlighted research will focus on: "Mechanical code" embedded in DNA that influences gene expression (Basu - Durham) Intricate process of programmed ribosomal frameshifting in viral protein synthesis (Hill - York) Genome segregation in archaea and bacteria (Barillà - York) Molecular mechanisms of viral replication in flaviviruses like Dengue (Morris - Durham) How bacteria orchestrate DNA replication and transcription simultaneously (Hawkins - York) Study the fundamental biology of human health and disease (Wollman - Newcastle) Measuring the forces generated at the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria (Baumann - York) Efficiency of gene therapies using viral vectors (Voelzmann - Hull) The role of non-coding RNA in gene expression (Lagos - York) Single molecule characterisation of industrially relevant engineered proteins (Plevin - York) How DNA topology impacts its replication and transcription (Leake - York) Here we are seeking to purchase a user-friendly, laser-trapping microscope to ensure that we can meet the demands of our interdisciplinary users and maximise this investment to the benefit of the regional, national and international research communities.