Equipment for the Multi-User Oral Biology Laboratory of The University of São Paulo School of Dentistry

Abstract

This is a request to outfit the USP School of Dentistry Multi-user Oral Biology Laboratory (MOBL) with devices that, due to their cost, would be difficult to acquire under a Regular Research Grant. These devices are to be installed in the MOBL, inaugurated on 16 September 2009, which acts as a centralized laboratory for applied basic research across all departments and disciplines at the USP School of Dentistry. The MOBL has 400 m2 of floor space and includes a vivarium for animals (rats and mice) used in experimentation. Construction began in 2007 with funds from the FAPESP Institutional Technical Reserve (Grants 07/50786-0 and 08/51284-0) and from USP itself. Currently, the lab has equipment and material that were in the USP Biosciences Institute Biology of Mineralized Tissue Laboratory, which was decommissioned due to the transfer of Professor Arana-Chavez to the USP School of Dentistry, together with equipment from the USP School of Dentistry Laboratory of Oral Biochemistry, implemented by Professor José Nicolau, who became an USP School of Dentistry collaborator in 1996, after his retirement from the USP Institute of Chemistry. The creation of the MOBL is leading to the optimization and upgrading of microscopy and biochemistry as effective tools of basic research applied to clinical areas. The USP School of Dentistry has a transmission electron microscope and a scanning electron microscope, acquired via FAPESP Grant 95/05281-8 (coordinated by Prof. Vera de Araújo). The use of both microscopes is currently coordinated by Prof. Arana-Chavez, head of the MOBL and coordinator of this proposal. The specimens for electron microscopy are being processed in the MOBL. However, microscopy at the USP School of Dentistry is not limited to electron microscopy but also includes light microscopy and fluorescence microscopy, both of which are employed in the study of oral tissue morphology, such as the location of structural molecules in health and disease. In immunostaining, confocal laser scanning microscopy offers important advantages for the further expansion of such studies. In addition, we are requesting a spectrometer in order to support the complementary structural biology and biochemistry studies currently underway at the USP School of Dentistry. (AU)